Unseen
by Serious Bunburyist
Summary: I was nobody. I was hated. Then everything suddenly changed and my life was a whirlwind, and not all of it good. The prophesy didn't help. Sirius/OC
1. Reminiscing

**Author's Note: Have a happy read, and let me assure you that this first chapter is not as good as the following ones. So, even if you don't particularly enjoy this first chapter, keep reading, please!**

**8/18/2011**

**Author's Note: This is me attempting to fix up some of the more confusing parts of my story and procrastinating the next chapter. Sorry. ****L**

Pulling my trunk behind me down the train, I reflected upon the events which brought me to start my seventh year of Hogwarts completely alone and friendless. But this was not new, I've not had friends since my unfortunate first year at Hogwarts. Actually, it was an odd set of coincidences that led to my unwilling solitude, or that's what I always tell myself when I'm feeling depressed, anyways. Honestly, it could have happened to anyone. Well, anyone with my odd combination of blood-traitor family ties, intelligence usually unseen in Gryffindors, and habit of making the wrong friends at the wrong time, and with Hufflepuffs nonetheless! Well, and then quickly losing them due to the above mentioned.

I finally reach a compartment at the very end of the train, one that no one else would, hopefully, try to sit. Hefting my trunk up into the rack above the seats, which seems like a rather silly place to stash heavy trunks, proved rather difficult. It took me quite awhile to get the trunk stored away, and that greatly diminished the ample time I had achieved by arriving well before other students were set to come onto the platform. Still, I was able to arrange myself comfortably on the seat with a book before any other students boarded the train.

People always say that they could never survive without the loving support of their friends, as evidenced by all the happy reunions of students outside my window. Students who've only been out of each others' company for months at most.

"Lizzy! I've, like, missed you so much!" Came the unmistakable squeal of a normally composed Ravenclaw prefect.

"Honey, I haven't seen you since our emergency shopping trip! Was that sparkle lip-gloss really 'water'-proof?" Asked a pretty blonde of her equally pretty brunette friend.

"Dude," said a couple burly Quidditch players in eerie unison as they man-hugged.

All of these friends seem happy and dependant on each other, in the happier cases merely for the other's companionship. But I've seen the nastier aspects of friendship, and I say that it's not so hard to go without friends, really. For instance, I've been doing just fine without any friends for years. I haven't gotten insanely lonely or anything!

'Have I? No, no I have not. The voices in my head say so. Say, will you be my friends, voices in my head?'

Sure, my isolation hasn't exactly been by choice, but still, here I am, completely okey-dokey. I won't lie though, and say that there aren't times I miss my old friends, or that the thought of having any friends makes me lonely, but I'm not about to beg for friends, not that anybody listen anyway. And there was, after all, a reason my old friends deserted me. Besides, over the years I'll bet we've grown apart. And they deserve risk-free friendships. Which they made crystal clear is what they wanted. In fact, the last time I actually talked to my ex-friends was in second year, this being my seventh.

By now I'm sure that you're wondering whether I'm some sort of freak of nature, having no friends at all. And I don't even have a few casual acquaintances that I could write home to my parents about.

Yes, you're probably thinking quietly to yourself that I'm a really big dork and all my friends abandoned me out of sheer embarrassment. All this as you edge slowly away from me like you would a dangerous rabid dog. Well, you'd be wrong. I'm actually rather normal, excruciatingly so I think sometimes, and if not for the unfortunate events that seem to plague me, I'd probably have at least a couple of equally normal, perhaps even boring, friends. Maybe even, dare I think it?, a completely normal and wonderful boyfriend. We would all lead a perfectly normal life together.

What exact event triggered my unwilling seclusion? Well, to avoid sounding like a crazed conspiracy theorist with too much time on her hands (while I do actually have way too much time on my hands due to a distinct lack of friends, I'm definitely not a crazed conspiracy theorist. Although, in all fairness, I do have a good couple of theories that involve turnips and leprechauns, and some might say that they could only really be considered plausible by an insane person) I'll say that the events leading to my life of isolation was an unfortunate series of unconnected events that were not plotted by my enemies (of which I have quite the few).

Anyway, when I first came to Hogwarts I had several Hufflepuff friends who I had met on the train. I also had one Gryffindor friend who I tended to ignore badly, but not always, I might add, for my closer Hufflepuff friends. Poor Lily, I suppose I am partially to blame for driving her to the Soul-Sucking Vultures of Pure Evil, or so I've dubbed them (a clique just as likely to smear the good names of many good Hogwarts students as to suck your soul out through your mouth. Unfortunately not many at Hogwarts seem to have caught on to their pure evil. This is because they mostly pick on younger or more vulnerable students. But you'd think the evil cackles they croak out whenever someone is in pain would be a pretty good hint to most people).

Anyway, I had told my friends, unwisely I know now, a little about my family history. Me, being a young and naïve Gryffindor, thought that I could trust them with my confidence. I soon learned that Hufflepuffs, while supposedly loyal, are not unwavering in the face of danger.

My Mom used to belong to this old and very respectable pureblooded family, and as usually goes along with it, they were strict and Muggle-hating. Apparently this family, the Wellworths, are quite famous throughout the wizarding world. To make a long and painful story short, because I don't, in fact, know the entire story, my Mom fell in love and married my Dad, a Muggle-born, who, although fairly well off, could never gain the approval of Mom's strict and blood-biased parents. Mom, showing no remorse for her actions, was disowned. It is my belief that they never spoke of her again, although, having never met them, me being the bastard half-blood that I am, cannot personally confirm that claim.

Other pure-blood families have no such scruples about my family. They see Mom's act as the ultimate betrayal, especially having once been part of the infamous Wellworth clan. As they see it, anyone would give their right arm to be part of that family and my Mom gave it all up for a worthless Mudblood. So now they set my family up as the ultimate blood traitors. When the Slytherins discovered who my family was, they were delighted. Well, they delighted in causing me pain, that is. Soon afterwards, this was the beginning of second year, mind you, they began to periodically attack me in the hallways. They were good about it though, those sneaky little slime balls. I'm never attacked if there are other people around, especially teachers. My friends, though, the Hufflepuffs, often got caught in the crossfire. Because, instead of being happy just severely beating me, the Slytherins started hexing my friends. The Hufflepuffs, never known for being brave, abandoned me.

"Taylor," they told me one day, "you know that we love you and all," here the speaker for the group, one I'm sure they had chosen fairly, Hufflepuffs being perpetually fair, "but we can't be seen around you anymore." I admit, while I should have seen it coming, I was stunned. I never thought they'd just abandon me to the dogs like that.

"You guys are Hufflepuffs," I accused, "aren't you supposed to be loyal?" The small group of children, because they really were just children, shifted about avoiding any eye contact with me and generally looking an odd mixture of uncomfortable and regretful.

"It's better this way," one piped up, ignoring my accusation entirely, "you'll be better off hanging around with people in your own house, anyways."

"And," another one piped up, "Gryffindors can protect you better." The whole exchange ticked me off, especially their justifications for their putrid actions. However, before I could even reply, they left me standing alone in the hallway, tears dripping down my stunned face. And that's when the Slytherins decided to ambush me. Perfect timing, those snakes.

"Ooooh, is the little Gryffindork half-blood sad?"

"What's wrong Gryffindork? Did you finally realize that your just an unworthy little snot-nosed brat without enough good-breeding to fill a thimble?" A chorus of laughter broke out among the throng of Slytherins at that unintelligent remark.

"Just because we can't all be inbred…" I retorted recklessly. I had already lost my friends, what more could they take? Well, as it turns out, you should never backtalk a large group of Slytherins. Turns out it makes them violent, and violent Slytherins don't have the scruples of a rampaging troll with a killer headache.

Not ten minutes later, I was passed out cold in the hallway.

Now, if this was a happy fairytale story, another student would find me, revive me, and befriend me. What really happened was that Peeves dropped a bucket of dishwater on me. So, beaten, hexed, and dripping wet, I limped my way up to the hospital wing.

Madame Pomfrey, of course, demanded to know who did this to me. Even at twelve years old I knew the basic rule of the bullied: never tell on your aggressor, he'll just come back for more and it'll be ten times worse. And so I didn't tell the well-intentioned and concerned Madame Pomfrey.

Instead, I stood there, shivering, and came up with a convincing cover-story. It was the stupid little lie of a scared and desperate little kid, and I'll never know why she didn't press harder for the truth. If she had I would have broken down and told her exactly what had happened. Who knows what would have happened then?

But after that I learned to take care of my own injuries, and never went back to the Hospital Wing for fear of a severer beating.

Because I initially had friends in Hufflepuff, I really didn't make many friends in Gryffindor, besides Lily, of course. However, because I didn't spend a lot of time with the Gryffindors, other than mealtimes and evening in the Common Room, Lily made friends with the Soul-Sucking Vultures of Pure Evil. If it wasn't already obvious, there is no love lost between us. That is, when they aren't busy ignoring me. Apparently I'm beneath their notice.

Just before the Hufflepuffs abandoned me, they ordered Lily to stay away from me because they just couldn't accept a friend who was also friends with the 'likes of a loser' like me. Lily is a wonderful person, and had they ordered this of her just a couple of days later she wouldn't have deserted me completely. However, as it was, she saw it as choosing between the friends she spent a lot of time with and the one who periodically abandoned her for others. I can't really blame her for her choice, even if I can never forget what it did to me.

I hate to see her scurrying after them now. They are completely shallow and stupid, although they are also extremely popular. Strange who those two things often go side by side, especially in stories. Although Lily is slightly shyer, and also not nearly as shallow, she is also quite well-known at Hogwarts. That might be because of her kindness and good grades, though. Without her, the Vultures would probably have flunked out in our third year. And I did hear rumors that bribery was involved for at least one of them to pass her OWLs. Luckily for them they have their rich Daddies to bail them out of trouble.

Furthermore, it is a little known fact that Ravenclaws are quite covetous towards their role as top of the academic field. Because I was all alone, I studied a lot. Actually, you could say that I studied more than I did anything else. And, along with my natural academic ability, this put me at the top of my class. Unfortunately, because I had usurped what they saw as their niche, they despise me heartily. That is, when they remember who I am, that is.

It is another little known fact that Ravenclaws are sneaky little buggers. They are never openly hostile towards me, they just never, ever, acknowledge me. If not for the hostile glances they occasionally throw at me, especially after I beat one of them at an exceptionally hard test, I wouldn't know that they hate me. I don't think they think of me, other than that. Although, there have been occasions where I've been the brunt of an unusually complicated and advanced hex that I've wondered…And there's my paranoia kicking in! Welcome home.

Because two houses utterly despise me and the other two coldly ignore me (and, if Its not just my paranoia speaking, occasionally jinx me), I'm not conceited. I actually know that I'm not universally despised: a lot o people probably aren't even aware of my existence. The Marauders, for instance, don't know that I exist.

Understandably, I tend to avoid drawing unneeded attention to myself. Teachers tend to, for all their good intentions, only notice the three types of students who tend to make themselves known in class. The troublemakers, for example, are closely observed throughout class for potential pranks, ahem, Marauders, ahem, so that they can be stopped and scolded.

Those students who are complete rubbish in class, too, are monitored. The teachers want to help them improve, and I also suspect they are waiting for something to explode around them. Which, actually, does happen quite a bit, particularly around the Vultures and Peter Pettigrew. I think that, despite needing to protect others from these explosions, the teachers secretly find amusement in these 'accidents.'

Finally, there are the teacher's pets. By definition the teachers love these students, for the most part. Sometimes I wonder if they get tired of the constant sucking up. Slughorn probably would never, but McGonagall probably hates it.

Anyway, I fit into none of these categories. I actually believe that the teachers are thus far quite oblivious to my existence. Yes, they know my name from grading my tests and essays, but to pick me out of a crowd? I've often been reported absent from classes that I've not only attended but also arrived early too. I serve the detentions anyway; I've found it easier than confronting the teachers about it. They rarely believe me anyway.

I am completely alone, and because of this I've developed odd habits. I tell myself jokes inside my head, for instance. Sometimes I laugh aloud at them. I'm quite sure that some of the first years think I'm crazy. They're probably glad I'm leaving next year. Anyway, I'm probably not crazy, but, then again, I've just gone over the entire history of my utter seclusion for no apparent reason. Obviously I already know my own past, and its not like I have any friend to inform of my past, nor am likely to ever get any. There's no way to change the past, so, why dwell on it, right? It's not like anything's about to change.

Or so I thought.


	2. A Near Miss

On the very first day of school I sat alone in a compartment towards the back of the train. Upon hearing this you'll probably scoff, saying to yourself, "No wonder she doesn't have any friends," thinking that I put forth absolutely no effort to make friends for myself. On the contrary, I simply no longer try due to all the beatings, cold shoulders, and evil eyes I've been on the receiving end of. Not to say that everyone hates me at Hogwarts. Quite the contrary, haven't I just spent a lot of time, in my head, of course, proving that while every house hates or ignores me, many people are simply oblivious to my existence? But I dare not even approach those students happily ignorant of my situation. And no, I am not self-deluded: I know perfectly well that a friend won't fall on my lap and introduce himself to me.

The compartment door clattered open suddenly, startling me from my reverie. Four large boys fell into my hereunto quiet and peaceful compartment. What? I've grown quite used to seclusion, and the quiet that comes with it. It's not my fault that I started violently at the sudden onslaught of noise. Still, even though one of the boys nearly fell right on top of me, they didn't notice my presence. One of the boys seemed to be telling a outrageously hilarious joke, and I, per usual, seemed to have missed the punch line. Using their distraction of uproarious laughter, I slipped quietly out of the door, slowly sliding it closed. With a sharp 'click' I successfully shut out their laughter and joyful camaraderie. I sighed whimsically and leaned against the wall. I can't help but wish that I had the kind of friendship those boys have. Of all the friendships I've observed from the shadows, theirs was the strongest, the one I was most envious of.

Ah, yes, the Marauders, can't live with them, can certainly live without them. It's not that I hate the Marauders, as I've just admitted, I'm envious of them. It's simply that they tend to make my life even more crap than it needs to be. They are, you see, archenemies with the Slytherins. The very same nasty group that has been torturing me for years. I believe it all started because Black, the one in Gryffindor, was disowned by his family. His cousins at Hogwarts like to drive the stake of abandonment even deeper into his heart, being disowned by your family, even if they are sadists, hurts, just ask my mom. So, inevitably, the Marauders duel the Cousins Black and any other wanna-be death eater as well. Predictably, the Marauders beat the Slytherins in all their duels. Why the Slytherins keep coming back for more is beyond me. Maybe its some sort of honor thing. Although, why being beaten repeatedly would be good for your honor don't ask me. Being beaten in all their duels, or at least most of them, by a ragtag group of Gryffindors, two of them not even pureblood, tends to get their dander up. Later that week there's me, a helpless little Gryffindor who symbolizes all they hate, walking innocently along on my way to Arithmancy and, oh no!, there's an angry Slytherin leaning casually against a wall, and I'm left sporting a black eye. I can barely go two days without being jumped in the corridor, usually leaving me nursing some sort of injury. Then again, I've gotten quite good at healing charms if I do say so myself. So I guess I have the Slytherins and Marauders to thank for my great potential in a career as a Healer. But the Marauders aren't bad people, not by a long shot. I know they have no idea what tends to happen to me every time they anger a Slytherin. No, the Slytherins don't take defeat well, and the Marauders are too good at magic for their own good. What makes them celebrate in the Common Room, slapping each other's backs with glee, leaves me with aches and pains, barely able to sit, let alone be slapped on the back, the very thought of with makes me wince with pain. No, the Marauders aren't bad people, just happily oblivious, and I can't blame them for it. What I'd give to be oblivious too…

We'll begin with the leader of their little ragtag gang, James Potter. Although it is rather difficult to tell that he's the leader, to give Sirius Black all due credit. Only a discerning eye like mine, I spend _way_ too much time people-watching as an alternative to boredom, could tell that Potter is really the one in charge. Anyway, as if being the ringleader of his little gang weren't enough, one look from Potter is enough to make any girl swoon. Well, or so I've heard, never having been on the receiving end of one of his sigh-worthy looks, but I can well imagine, sigh. Potter is blessed with wonderful black, messy hair that just begs for fingers to be rubbed through it. A plea that Potter finds necessary to answer himself, and many times a day. Some say that this habit of his is a studied effort to draw even more attention to himself, but I think that it's such a habit that he's no longer aware that he's running his fingers through his dark untidy hair making it, if possible, even more messy. And I've heard girls in the bathroom, unaware that I was in the very next stall, go into ecstasies over his "bea-u-teous" hazel eyes. He used to be a player, before that job was taken over by his best mate Sirius, but not lately. James Potter used to ask a new girl out everyday, but that too has ceased. I've heard it whispered that he has his eye on only one girl now, but so far I've seen no sign of that. Oh, and to put the icing on the cake of every girl's fantasies, he plays Quidditch, and not only that, because many boys claim they play Quidditch, he plays it well. McGonagall didn't make him team Captain for nothing, I suspect.

Sirius Black, the boy who very nearly became closely acquainted with my lap by almost falling on me back in my compartment, made for an extremely interesting study. No, I'm not a stalker, just, as previously mentioned, extremely bored and lacking in any real company. I mean, its not as though I never talk to anyone…um…there once was this time at lunch when I…oh, wait, I just meant to ask that little first-y to remove his elbow from my pudding. I wonder if there will be pudding at the feast…hmm…maybe I should track down that friendly trolly lady, I seem to be rather famished. As for being lonely, I guess I really do only talk to myself, dust bunnies, and imaginary friends. I have this one imaginary friend, his name is Claude, and he never gets bored of my rambling (which, if you hadn't noticed, I do a lot) or deserts me for other friends or because he's afraid. In fact he often beats the Slytherins up for me! Well, only in my imagination. Some of the ways I have him beat them are truly inspired. I once had him take down seven of them with only a banana. Oh Claude, if only you were real. What was I talking about again? Oh, right, the enigma that is Sirius Black, the only Black ever to be sorted into Gryffindor. First of all, most people think that Black is only a major player, in love with his own reflection, and no deeper than the shallow end of a swimming pool. But, if you pay attention you're likely to catch Black in one of his "spells," or so I call them. Reminiscent of when young girls used to have fainting spells from wearing their corsets too tight. Every so often Black tends to stare off into the distance with an intense look of…something…on his face, and even his friends cannot seem to rouse him from this state. From this I suspect he often thinks about something rather serious, his family perhaps, or the possibility of Leprechaun attack. Although, I could be completely wrong about him and he only has indigestion. I will postpone my judgment until more data can be gathered, which will be in about, well, never, as I never see myself in the position of holding any greater knowledge on the oddity that is Sirius Black than I do now.

Then there is Remus Lupin, the kindest werewolf I've ever, well, not met per say, although observed closely for years along without his knowledge and along with a select few other interesting subjects might be a good way of putting it. Hmm…yeah, that last one doesn't sound _too_ stalker-ish…oh, wait, maybe it does. Ok, I resolve to tell no one of my odd, slightly stalker-ish spy tendencies. Back to Remus Lupin, yes, I know, surprising that such a kind, empathetic, and mostly ordinary guy is a blood-curdling monster once a month. It surprised me too. But I know it to be true. The mystery of his monthly activities had me distracted for some time, but I finally put it all together about third year. My mother taught me not to fear people who happen to be werewolves, probably in an effort to further alienate herself from the disturbing and prejudiced teachings of her ex-family. She did tell me, though, never to be around a werewolf on the full moon. They are helpless to instinct then, and attack any human wandering about. This is why I make it a point to know the moon cycle and never be caught outside during the full moon. I have always wondered, though, why the other boys also disappear each and every full moon without fail, sometimes I worry about that. Another mystery to keep me distracted, I suppose. No, I don't hate Lupin for his condition, if anything I can empathize with the loneliness and soul-crushing isolation he would feel if word of it ever got out. Although, his situation would probably be much worse than mine. Right now, though, I envy him his friendships with actual human beings. But there's more to Remus than his condition. He's caring and kind to all, those he notices, that is. His marks are second only to mine, Lily's, and a few of the Ravenclaws. If there was anyone in this school I would desire for a friend, it's him.

Peter Pettigrew is perhaps the most popular of the Marauders and maybe even Hogwarts. Somehow he managed to worm his way in to almost every group of well-liked students in the school. Although he's not very good at schoolwork, he's also not the worst. I've often suspected him of mooching homework help off his various connections. His best friends are the Marauders, though, he comes back to them as his base of operations. I believe the Marauders often use him to gather information before a prank. Peter's girlfriends tend to last longer than Sirius', but I've never seen him with the same girl for more than two months. I was amazed that he and Bertha Jorkins managed to last a full two months, but many students were betting that they'd last much longer. She's still pining after him, even after he replaced her with a long line of blonde bimbos. He's not quite on the same plane of hotness as James, Sirius, and Remus, but he's right up there. But there has always been something about Peter that disturbs me. Maybe it's the way his eyes tend to dart around a room, or the way his loyalties almost seem to shift depending on who he's with at the time. Either way, I wouldn't trust that, admittedly handsome, boy as far as I could throw him.

I had been standing in the corridor on the train for way too long. If I stayed leaning against the wall I was sure to attract the attention of an ill-intentioned Slytherin or two, those little buggers always seem to travel in packs, drat them. Luckily I had already changed into my Hogwarts uniform and didn't need to disturb the boys currently lounging in my compartment to rummage clumsily through my trunk, probably eliciting snickers from them, or worse, un-amused glares alerting me to my intrusion into their little circle. Unluckily, I had already changed into my Hogwarts uniform and didn't have that simple task to drag out in a vain attempt to occupy myself for the rest of the train ride.

"Oooh, look boys," came the evil cackle of none other than my chief tormentor, Bellatrix Black, from some where up above my head. I almost groaned and shut my eyes, but stopped myself; I definitely would not be showing weakness in front of the twisted mind of Bellatrix Black. Just my luck that she would show up. Never again will I bemoan my lack of anything to do.

"What do you want?" I asked quietly, my voice cracking. So much for not showing weakness. While it might have been better for me if I had said nothing, I was still a Gryffindor, and showing that small sign of resistance made me feel a bit better about myself. That feeling, small and hopeless as it was, was crushed out by the knowledge of my incoming beating.

"You hear that, boys?" Bellatrix trilled, once again referring to her posse, consisting of, you guessed it, boys. "It sounds like itty bitty Brown isn't feeling well on this fine morning. Poor itty bitty Brown." The smirk on her face was enough to make even a seasoned seventh year quaver in his boots, but not me: I was used to having it directed at me. Now that it had made its appearance, the beating was about to begin.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Bellatrix shouted, and I felt all my limbs lock up. I slumped to the floor, completely unable to move. Trust Bellatrix not to fight a fair fight. "You just think you're so-o great, don't you Brown. But while we're respectable purebloods, you're nothing but a cast-off Wellworth. Nothing," she punctuated each word with a kick, her voice still oddly monotone, "but a worthless little half-blood muggle lover. Go ahead and cry," she told me, "but your mudblood Daddy and slut of a Momma can't kiss your boo-boos." She turned and left, the boys following after her like obedient little dogs, each one kicking me for good measure on their way past my frozen form. Once they were far enough away she lifted the curse. She was not entirely stupid. While no one would believe me if I spoke up about her brutality, to be found petrified would give credence to my story. Plus, although she didn't know it, her insults made me angry, perhaps even angry enough to put up a fight. Oh how I'd love to duel her in a fair fight. She'd be the one left on the floor, bruised and battered! Well, maybe…

I took stock of all my injuries. While I had a couple bruised ribs, more bruising around my stomach, and a cut on my arm, my head had completely escaped injuries. Thank goodness!, I'm not all that good at healing my own head wounds. All in all, not nearly my worst encounter with the Stupid Slimeballs of Doom. I got up and stiffly walked towards the bathrooms. It would be simple enough to fix myself up in one of the stalls. Just as I was opening the bathroom door, a compartment door burst open.

"Oh," said Sirius Black to someone standing behind him in the compartment, "I thought I heard my dear cousin out here and I fancied a little fight."

"Better luck next time, Padfoot," Potter put in, "if she was here, she's already left."

"Huh," Black said thoughtfully, staring at one spot on the wall, "could have sworn I heard her out here, but if she was in the neighborhood, I'd've thought she'd look me up to have our annual little before school run-in. Odd if she was here without fighting anyone." I, too, wondered what on Earth Bellatrix was up to. Sirius was right in saying that she usually attacked the Marauders before school had even started. I can't help but wonder what horrible thing she could have planned this time. And on that happy note, I slipped into the bathroom to heal my injuries the best I could.


	3. Meetings

It's been nearly a week and the Slytherins and the Marauders have still not had their traditional beginning of school brawl. The boys seem to have dismissed it as good luck, judging by their carefree attitude, but somehow I cannot dismiss Bellatrix that easily. She has something terrible planned, or my name isn't Taylor Brown. I just can't help but wonder where and when she'll strike. The "who" is no mystery, of course: the Marauders. Judging by the fact that Slytherins always plot revenge no matter how long it'll take, and the Gryffindor boys have been annihilating them for years at their own game, I'd say that what ever the plan is, it'll have dire consequences when for whoever it targets. I can only sit back and hope that I'm no where near them when it happens, but I really can't see why I would be.

Anyway, the first week of school is always a breeze, so, as usual, I have finished all my homework. While most students would use this as a golden opportunity to take a walk around the lake, play tag with the Whomping Willow, or visit Hagrid, I'm heading towards the library. Maybe after I pick out a good book I'll head outside and read it under some forgotten tree by the edge of the lake. Yes, that does sound quite lovely. Although, most students are outside, it being a beautiful Saturday afternoon, so I probably won't be able to avoid the snooty Ravenclaws, the cowardly Hufflepuffs who have probably long forgotten our old alliances, the indifferent and oblivious Gryffindors, and most importantly the vicious and cruel Slytherins.

Goodness gracious I'm bored, though. The kind of all-consuming boredom that not even a good book would cure. So, what shall I do if not go outside? I could go down to the kitchens, of course. I happen to be fairly well-known there. After all, there are a lot of people I can avoid by eating with the house-elves instead of in the Great Hall. Then again, I'm not really all that hungry. Hmm…because everyone is probably outside I could explore the castle without fear. I mean, I've always enjoyed discovering a new part of the castle. Like unraveling some long-hidden secret. That wouldn't be too boring would it? But let me see here, the only other alternative would be to spend some quality time with Claude. I haven't spent much time "with" Claude lately, but something tells me that path leads to insanity. So, exploring the castle it is. Oh wait, I know, I could go visit Erderic the Ever-Early. I haven't gone to see him since…well, last year sometime, I guess. Although, he is rather snooty for a portrait. Well, maybe he doesn't realize that he's just a portrait. I used to go and talk to him all the time, but then he really started getting on my nerves. He was always trying to schedule specific times to meet, he was always early to each one, and angry at me if I wasn't. But beggars can't be choosers so I'll go visit Erderic.

"Hey there, Erderic," I called out, approaching the painting depicting Erderic arriving early to his own execution. Unfortunately, the painting was empty. Oh well, Erderic was probably visiting Sir Cadogan again. Honestly, I don't know which has the worse affect on the other. At least I made an attempt, and I can't honestly say I was looking forward to chatting with Erderic anyway. As starved as I am for social interaction, he always manages to work in half a dozen insults during every conversation, and I think poorly enough of myself as it is.

So, I wonder where I should go now. Outside is still out, for the same reasons, Erderic isn't here, and I'm still not hungry enough to visit the kitchens. So…yeah, welcome to my life: boring as heck and not as warm. Actually, sometimes it gets rather chilly. Speaking of the cold weather, Penguins! I just love the little fellows! I saw them when my family visited the zoo over the summer in yet another attempt to familiarize us kids with Muggle culture. That sort of thing tends to make Mom feel better. Penguins are just so cute with their little tuxes, although, I wonder whether the girl penguins object to wearing men's clothing. Alas, I do not speak penguin and do not know. Oh my gosh! It would so awesome to be able to talk to animals! I could find out what my dog says, or my pet fish! Who knows, my dog and fish could possibly be conspiring to take over the world as we speak. But maybe I'd rather not know if that was the case.

What was that noise? It sounds rather like someone dueling. And I'd know that evil cackle anywhere. Bellatrix Black, and possibly her posse, is dueling someone. Oh no, the Marauders! I should have told them to watch out! Although, I don't really know them, and they don't know me. I would have had to explain how I knew she was going to attack them, and to make sure they believed me I'd have to tell them my entire story. I'd really rather avoid that, if possible. An anonymous note would might have worked, but maybe they wouldn't have taken it seriously. Seriously…Sirius…tee-hee! Concentrate, Taylor, while you've been rambling on and on to yourself someone out there is probably getting hurt. But what can I possibly do? I've never been able to stop the Slytherins before. Besides, the Slytherins have been beating up on me for years and no one's ever stopped them, why should I help anyone else? But if I don't help that makes me just as bad as they are, I might as well beat whoever the victim is this time myself. Besides, its one thing to not know someone's been beat up and not to help them, its quite another to hear the fight and not stop to help. Even if it is probably just the Marauders, who are more than capable fighting their own battles. Oh alright, fine, I'll go help out.

Wand held alight, I ran towards the sounds of a scuffle. While I was dashing quickly through the corridors, the sounds ceased. Then I warily peered around the last corner. I was expecting to see the four cheerful faces of the Marauders, surrounding a half-dozen dazed and hexed Slytherins. But that was not the scene that met my eyes, in fact, initially I thought that no one was even there, then my gaze fell upon a lump collapsed on the floor. Seeing no one else in the hallway, I quickly dashed over to the seemingly comatose boy.

"Black," I said, shaking him roughly, "Black, wake up! Are you okay? Come on, wake up you know you want to! Wake up! Black!" Slowly Black sat up, his eyes closed tight.

"What happened? Who are you? My eyes hurt." He said, never opening his eyes.

"Maybe I should take you to the hospital wing," I said, more to myself than to him.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you!"

"What?" Hmmm…maybe he has a concussion.

"Yeah, then you can beat me up more, and hurt my eyes again!" He grabbed my arm, with surprising accuracy, seeing as he still had his eyes closed, at the movement his brows furrowed in suppressed pain.

"What the heck in a hand-basket are you talking about?" What? So I might've, conceivably, invented a few of my own curses to avoid actual ones, my parents are quite strict, thank you very much. Suddenly Black burst out in laughter, hoarse laughter which sounded a lot like a dog barking.

"H-h-heck in a hand-basket!" he choked out, loosening his grip on my arm. "_Who_ are you?"

"Hmph, well no need to sound insulting about it. I'm just the person who found you passed out on the floor." His face sobered up immediately.

"How do I know that you're the one who found me and not the one who did this to me?" This surprised me; he didn't know who it was who attacked him?

"If I was," I told him gently, "why would I have woken you up and tried to take you to the hospital wing when I could have just hexed you again while you were passed out?" I was just trying to put a rest to his suspicions with a rhetorical question, but he seemed to be actually thinking through my question.

"To save your own hide," he replied quietly, "to provide an alibi so you won't be suspected of hexing me yourself."

"Then why don't I just obliviate you now? Why am I still calmly talking to you through your accusations?" Oh, I just love the witty banter we have going, cue eye roll. I mean, really, who does he think he is to accuse me of hexing him? He doesn't even know me. But I really seem to have stumped him this time!

"I don't know," he admitted finally, "maybe you're still trying to prove your innocence?"

"You don't seem to remember what happened to you. You don't even know who I am," I reasoned dryly, "you haven't even opened your eyes yet so you don't even have a good description of me. How are your eyes feeling, by the way?"

"Oh yeah, much better, thanks. What did you do to them anyway?" He accused, his eyes still squeezed tightly shut, but pain no longer etching itself into his handsome forehead.

"I TOLD YOU THAT I DIDN'T HEX YOU!" I yelled. If this is what I get for trying to be a good Samaritan, I thought angrily, then flippin' flapdoodle it all! I tried to walk away, but his grip on my arm tightened.

"Sorry, one last test," he grimaced, "but you'll be happy to know that you passed!" he added, a small grin lightening his grim expression.

"Whoopee," I told him sarcastically, "Now you'd best be getting down to the hospital wing. Will you need any help?" His face gave away his annoyance and disbelief.

"No! Absolutely not!"

"It's just," I continued calmly, "you haven't opened your eyes yet, and sight is crucial to those who are lost."

"Well…who says I don't know where I am?"

"You did," I answered, with a small amused smile, "now, are you going to open your eyes or sit here all day?" He didn't respond quickly. But a couple of minutes later he began to slowly open his eyes, only to snap them closed again. "What's wrong?" I asked, panicked for some reason by his expression.

"I can't see," he croaked, his voice cracking.

"What?" I asked, the panic seeping into my voice, "What do you mean, you can't see?"

"Just what I said," he snapped back, "when I opened my eyes I saw nothing. Do I need to paint a picture for you? I hope not, because, as it is, that would be rather difficult."

"There's no need to snap at me." I told him, then, cutting off his snort, "I'm sure Madame Pomfrey will be able to fix you right up."

"You sound like such a teacher," was his only reply, but he did look rather relieved as we got up and I grabbed his arm to lead him to the Hospital Wing. "Wait, you aren't a teacher, are you?" he asked suddenly. I laughed. Me, a teacher? Honestly! "I'll take that as a "no," then." he said with a wry grin.

"Definitely," I replied with a wide smile. I haven't had this much fun in ages! But it'll all end all too soon. Madame Pomfrey will fix his eyesight with a wave of her wand, then he'll no longer care about the girl who took him up to the hospital wing. And, I realized with a jolt, he won't even know who I am. There might be some way I could take advantage of this, but I can't think of anything at the moment. Besides, I couldn't take advantage of a blind guy (even a temporarily blind guy). I let out a long sigh.

"What's wrong?" asked Sirius Black. Gee, I didn't know that my sighing was that loud.

"Nothing," I told him, "let's just get you to Madame Pomfrey.

"Hear hear," he replied, "so, what did you say your name was again?" he asked curiously. I let go of his arm, quickly debated over whether to tell him the truth or not, opened my mouth, and…

"Padfoot! Oi, Padfoot! Where are you mate?" I could hear James yelling from a corridor or two over.

"Over here, Prongs!" Sirius called out excitedly, obviously forgetting about me. Saved by the yells of James Potter, I used this distraction as an opportunity to slip down a secret passageway unnoticed. I left the doorway open a crack, watching to make sure James actually did find the blind Sirius I had left all alone. Once I was sure everything would work itself out, I slipped down the passage and probably out of their thoughts and lives forever.


	4. A Very Serious Conversation

As I stumbled down the hallway, a girl who I did not know in the slightest guiding me. And, blind as a bat, I couldn't help but wonder why all the weird stuff always happens to me. Attacked by pixies, yep, I don't like to talk about it, I mean who gets attacked by pixies of all things? Good friends with a werewolf, that's me, I mean, how many people (besides the other Marauders) can claim that? Poked in the eye by an enchanted walking stick, it's happened to me twice, unfortunately. Became an illegal Animagus, yes-sir-ee that's me. Attacked by pirates while sailing the Mediterranean? Well, actually, no. That's never happened to me. But those times were different, those things were, mostly my fault. Yes, I admit it, they were (mostly) my fault. But this is even weirder. Last thing I know I'm walking down the hallway on the way to the kitchens. Then I'm being shaken awake by some random girl I don't know and is not even slightly familiar, to a blinding, literally as it turns out, pain behind my eyes. I don't even know the girl, she could be anyone! I certainly don't recognize her, which is odd because I've dated my way through most of the female population at Hogwarts. And here I am walking through the halls with what very well could be an escaped mental patient, absentmindedly talking with her. What am I thinking? Why do I seem to trust her? Is it just because my only other choice is to wander the halls blind and bumping into walls in the hopes of stumbling across either the Hospital Wing or someone I knew, or is it something more?

After saying something about hopefully getting to the Hospital Wing quickly, this lack of eyesight thing really was getting quite annoying, I asked her, "So, what did you say your name was again," hoping I'd recognize her name even if I didn't have a face to put with it. But before she could answer, I heard James calling my name. Yes! James can tell me who mystery girl is! And also whether she looks like a psychotic ax-murderer who's about to strike me dead, not that I'm worried or anything. Actually, her presence has calmed me down quite a bit from the whole 'Oh no! I'm blind!' panic attack. All things considered, she seems quite nice, and only slightly insane; I swear I heard her muttering something about 'flippin' flapdoodle,' I mean, what the flippin' flapdoodle is that? OH NO, now she has me doing it!

"Hey there, Sirius, what's up mate?" Oh good, there's James, he can reassure me of my sanity!

"James? Where are you?" I asked, knowing that he was near to me, but not quite able to tell the direction his voice was coming from.

"What's wrong with you, Mate?"

"Um…well I woke up on the floor of a hallway, blind as a bat, and this girl…"

"Wait a minute! You can't see? Oh, this is going to completely trash our chances at the Quidditch Cup!" James continued to ramble on and on, making me feel guilty and generally being completely useless. I completely forgot how this would affect Quidditch. How completely horrible of me, eye roll. It sure made me miss the Girl: at least she wasn't completely obsessed with Quidditch like James is.

"Hey, Girl, where are you, Girl? I know you're around here somewhere and you promised me a trip to the Hospital Wing." I turned from side to side in a vain attempt to find the Girl.

"Um…Padfoot…who are you talking to?" James sounded worried for my sanity.

"The Girl, the one bringing me to the hospital wing. She's the one who found me passed out." I explained, "But she can tell you all that,"

"Not really, seeing as there is no girl here. I haven't seen any girl around here." The Girl left me? She left me alone to fend for myself in the dark? Ok, wait, when was the last time I "saw" the Girl? Well, probably when I asked for her name was only to be rudely interrupted by Prongs. So, she hadn't completely abandoned me, she only left when James found me. I don't exactly know why, but this comforted me.

"Are you sure you didn't see a girl, James? Is it possible that she slipped past you?"

"Mate, why are you so insistent? You probably just hit your head too hard. Besides, we have much more important things to think about, remember? You're blind, we have to get you to Madame Pomfrey." Oh yeah. Ohmygosh! I'm blind, I can't see!

"We have to go to Madame Pomfrey!" I exclaimed.

"Finally he sees sense," James muttered to himself. He grabbed me roughly by the upper arm and started to drag me off.

"Luckily you managed to make your way almost to the Hospital Wing," he told me, walking at a scary pace. I mean, come one, I can't even see where I'm going, a little consideration here?

"Prongs, this isn't a race, slow down," we stopped.

"Yes, oh great and wonderful Professor Padfoot," James mocked me, letting go of my arm or a brief moment, probably giving me a quick salute.

"What did you two do this time?" asked Madame Pomfrey disapprovingly.

"Nothing, Madame Pomfrey," James told her seriously, Madame Pomfrey snorted, "Sirius here was attacked in the corridors, he can't remember who did it, or why. And now he can't see to play Quidditch! What am I going to do with a beater who can't even see his own bat. But I'm sure it'll be pretty bad for him too," James added quickly, but then continued to bemoan our Quidditch Cup chances. Meanwhile, I had more important things to worry about.

"You can't see?" Madame Pomfrey asked worriedly, lifting my chin, presumably to look into my open, sightless eyes, "Nothing at all?"

"Nothing," I replied dismally.

"Well, not to worry," she told me, her tone belying the calming words.

"Mr. Potter, why don't you go back to your Common Room," she told James, shooing him out and leading me over to a bed despite James' protests. "Just leave, Potter," she sighed impatiently, and got to work, bumping and clinking potion bottles, presumably sight-restoral potions.

"Here," she said, handing me a bottle of potion, "let's try this one." Seeing my hesitance, she added, "come on, drink up. Okay," she went on after I had swallowed the bitter potion in one gulp, "so now you need to keep your eyes closed for five minutes and then we'll see how they are."

Five hours and twenty potions later I was no closer to having my sight back than before. But much closer to a panic attack. The darkness is really starting to freak me out. I wish I had Prongs here with me.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to sleep here tonight, Black," Madame Pomfrey told me, I heard the curtains around my bed close. "I fear that it's as I thought," she muttered quietly, walking out of my hearing range as she did so.

_From the very ones who made them each who they are,_

_Will be provided the means to their ends and more,_

_He who they blinded will gain sight:_

_The ability to see she who is never seen,_

_The one who is unseen by all,_

_Will be found and given new life,_

_For a short time enjoying each other in peace,_

_Together they will change the fates soon prophesized,_

_And from them will dawn our world anew,_

_Never credit shall they gain through fame,_

_But happy they shall forever be, in life as in death,_

_But listener beware what is spoken here,_

_If certain events do not come to pass,_

_If the newly fated do not meet at last,_

_Though He-Who-Frightens-All will appear defeated,_

_And friends dead, outcast, betrayed, and beaten,_

_He will rise again, more evil by far,_

_Take this knowledge and direct,_

_Or for the worse, more deadly future exchange._

"What?" asked Minerva McGonagall nervously, she was never too sure of herself when it came to prophesies, or divination. She was the more down-to-Earth sort and didn't care much for this flighty sort of magic. And what Dumbledore had just shown her in his pensieve was obviously a prophesy.

"Well, Minerva, this is a prophesy," the Headmaster told her seriously and unnecessarily.

"Yes, yes, I know that!" she interrupted impatiently.

"I happened to overhear it in the Hogshead over the Summer," Dumbledore continued on as if she hadn't interrupted him, "that place tends to attract all sorts, apparently even seers. Care for a Lemon drop?" McGonagall dismissed the proffered candy dish with an impatient little flick of the hand.

"I simply meant, Albus, why are you showing me this now? If it was that important you would have undoubtedly told me at the beginning of September. So, seeing as it's not important, we should really get back to the issue at hand; someone tried to blind one of my students. Madame Pomfrey says it appears to be the result of some sort of Dark Magic. We should be out there trying to find the perpetrators, not sitting here talking calmly about prophesies."

"Yes, it is quite horrible. One of the students _blinded_ another," Dumbledore emphasized sternly. McGonagall blanched, ashamed of her outburst and realizing the connection for the first time.

"You mean…"

"Yes," Dumbledore said solemnly, "Sirius Black is _He who they blinded_."

"Then who is…"

"_She who is never seen,_" Dumbledore quoted,"t_he one who is unseen by all_? I'm afraid that I don't know."

"If you don't know, then…"

"How are we supposed to help them?"

"That's getting really annoying, Albus. Please let me…"

"Finish a sentence?" Dumbledore chuckled softly, McGonagall rolled her eyes. 'Honestly, she thought to herself, 'sometimes it's like talking to a child.'

"This is no joking matter," McGonagall said sternly, and Dumbledore sobered up immediately.

"You're absolutely right, Minerva, but sometimes a little joke to lighten the situation…No?…Well, alright, to the situation at hand, then; no, I'm afraid I don't know who the Unseen One is. I suppose that's rather the point, though, isn't it? If we knew who she was then she wouldn't be the Unseen One."

"But it could be anyone!" McGonagall moaned in defeat, "Anyone at all, as long as we don't know them."

"No, whoever it is goes to Hogwarts," Dumbledore declared firmly.

"How could you possibly know that, Albus?" she asked, amazed.

"I'll never reveal my secrets," Dumbledore chuckled.

"Albus…"

"Okay, fine. From the first few lines, _From the very ones who made them each who they are/Will be provided the means to their ends and more,/He who they blinded will gain sight_," Dumbledore explained, "Both…students, apparently, were made who they are by the same group of people. Assuming from later lines that the two haven't met yet, they probably didn't know the people out of Hogwarts. Besides, the same people blinded Mr. Black, so they must go to school here, as it is nearly impossible to get in and out of Hogwarts undetected. So, all those mentioned in the prophesy probably go to Hogwarts."

"So, if the first part came true, that must mean that the rest…" she trailed off dejectedly.

"Yes my dear Professor McGonagall, that means the rest is true too. The parts about Voldemort defeated once but rising again, and _friends dead, outcast, betrayed, and beaten,_ all true. It appears as though we must prevent that fate, now doesn't it? The prophesy even says that the other future, the one that occurs if the prophesy goes unfulfilled, is worse, more deadly. It all sounds rather dismal and hopeless, doesn't it?" Dumbledore leaned back in his chair, and closed his sad blue eyes.

"But what can we do? How do we help? We're supposed to _'direct'_ but how can we do that if we don't even know who the girl is?"

"As much as I hate knowing that there is a much overlooked and unseen student in my school," Dumbledore said slowly, "it must be true. As for finding her, that is not impossible. The prophesy basically says that she will be found because of what happens to Sirius Black. Already that is coming true; if not for the prophesy and Sirius' unfortunate blinding she may never have been brought to our attention. Now we can find her without fear of disrupting the prophesy. We must make a list of all the girls Fourth year and above, I can't see her being any younger than that, can you?" At McGonagall's nod he continued, "Then we simply cross off all those we can easily identify. Once we find her, we must give the Unseen One and Sirius little nudges together whenever possible."

"Doesn't encouraging romantic relationships go against all we, as educators, stand for?"

"This is a special case. Besides, who knows whether they'll even work out. Even the prophesy seemed to wonder whether they could make it together. We'll just do our best…and pray."


	5. Food Fight

Sirius Black was seriously annoyed. Madame Pomfrey had uncharacteristically released him from the Hospital Wing, telling him that 'I can't think of anything else to try but time. Perhaps the spell will wear off. Meanwhile, you might as well be out in the castle, living life. But be careful and stay around friends. Don't forget that being blind puts you at a distinct disadvantage. Don't let anyone use that against you.' Something about what she had said sounded scripted and unnatural, but she had released him. So James had escorted him back to the Common Room. He had led him over to a couch by the fire, made sure that he was comfortable, and had left him. Sirius rather suspected that James had come across Lily Evans and decided to stalk her, as he had recently taken to doing.

James had recently become infatuated with Evans, and it was unlike any relationship he had ever had before. Usually girls threw themselves at him, and he had been the school player for a solid couple of years. Actually, Lily Evans probably had no idea that James liked her. Although it may have been obvious to Sirius that James was head over heels for the girl, to others who did not know him very well it was probably unnoticeable. James had never actually become this obsessed with a girl before. All James has talked about for months was the great Lily Evans. He hadn't asked her out yet, surprisingly, not counting that time in fifth year when she had completely taken him by surprise by turning him down flat, of course. No one had ever turned down a date with James Potter before. Personally Sirius didn't know why James was so hung up on Lily. Sure she was pretty and smart, the kind of girl you could proudly bring home to Mom. Well, certainly not his Mother, imagine bringing a muggle-born home to his family, but you get the point. Sirius had to snort at his mental picture of familial horror if he brought home anyone less than acceptable. Not that he'd ever go home again, having been soundly disowned. Yes, Lily Evans might sound perfect on paper, but he didn't like Lily Evans, at least not in that way. There was something about the unyielding strictness of her standards and philosophies that made Sirius uncomfortable. Besides, she was clearly James' property now, even if she didn't know it, and friends don't mess around with their friends' girls.

All this thinking about Lily Evans, a girl, got him thinking about the Girl. The one he had met yesterday, and quickly accused of blinding him. It wasn't that Sirius was caught up on this girl in a romantic sense, he couldn't even see what she looked like and he had only talked to her once. But Sirius loved a good mystery and the Girl, he didn't know what else to call her, seeing as he'd never caught her name, presented the best one he'd had in quite some time. And now as he sat in the Common Room alone, Prongs, Moony, and Wormtail all having forgotten him to stalk a girl, prepare for the coming full moon, and hang out with his multitude of other friends respectively, Sirius had nothing to do but think about his newest mystery.

Taylor Brown was not surprised when she saw Sirius Black in the Common Room the following day, lounging on a couch by the fire like he owned the place. This was, after all, his Common Room too, it perhaps his even more so than it was hers; the only time she spent much time in the Common Room was in the middle of the night when no one was there and she couldn't sleep. That was her Common Room, and this, daytime Common Room, was his. Two things did surprise her, though. First of all, Sirius was not surrounded by his many friends or being waylaid by his fan club. She didn't know the last time, other than yesterday, of course, that she had seen him alone. Admittedly, the Common Room was quite empty, it being another lovely day outside. His friends must be outside too, she concluded. But the more surprising thing she noticed about Sirius was that he was still, obviously, blind. Taylor had always been under the comforting misconception that Madame Pomfrey could cure absolutely anything with just a flick or two of her wand, but obviously she had been wrong. Before she could stop herself, almost as if she were being pulled forward by a mixture of inevitability and loneliness, she walked over to Sirius Black and sat down next to him on the couch.

"Released early for good behavior?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow that he couldn't see. She surprised herself with this bold statement; usually she was quite shy around people. But maybe she found comfort in the fact that he could neither see or identify her and they were alone. Sirius hadn't moved when he felt someone sit down beside him, assuming that it was either one of his friends, with whom conversation would be unnecessary, or a member of his fan club, with whom conversation, indeed, any interaction at all, was to be avoided at all costs. But when he heard that voice, the voice of the Girl, his head jerked quickly towards her. 'What a coincidence,' he thought to himself, 'I think about her and she arrives. Maybe she really is a hallucination, I did hit my head rather hard…'

"You weren't a figment of my imagination, then?" he asked, only a hint of his actual worry showing through as he comically squeezed her arm for confirmation. Taylor burst into fits of laughter.

"W-w-wouldn't yo-you li-like to know," she tried to say, failing miserably, and he barked his hoarse laughter in response. They finally stopped laughing hysterically a few minutes later, no longer aware of why they had been laughing in the first place.

"Where are your friends?" Taylor asked curiously, looking around the still empty Common Room.

"Where are yours?" he smart-mouthed. When she didn't say anything, Sirius began to get worried, what had he done wrong? And he had though everything had been going so well…"Still there?" he asked her, reaching for her arm again.

Sirius' off-hand question had made Taylor uncomfortable. She should have been used to her lack of friends by now, but for some reason she didn't want Sirius to know she was such a loser. He always hung out with the cool, beautiful people, why would he ever willingly hang out with someone like her under any other circumstance than these? And sooner or later Madame Pomfrey would figure out how to fix his eyes and she have someone who was comfortably unaware of who she was to talk to. She had began to feel so comfortable talking to Sirius Black, too, but now she felt odd, uncomfortable. Taylor almost told him about her situation.

"I don't…" she started before being abruptly cut off.

"OIY! Mate!" came James' voice from the portrait hole. Sirius jerked his head blindly towards the portrait hole, a smile forming on his face. Taylor used his momentary distraction to ease herself out of his grip and slip through the Common Room towards the Girl's Dormitory. For once she neither tripped over her feet or bumped into anything. James, concentrating on walking towards where he'd left Sirius, didn't see her at all. She had made it up the stairs before Sirius noticed she was gone.

"Prongs," he said annoyed, "you let her escape again!"

"Who are you talking about?" James replied uneasily, having seen no one in the Common Room and wondering if his best friend was going completely bonkers.

"The Girl, the one who found me the other day."

"Mate," James said, "she's all in your head, I would have seen her otherwise. You're the only one in the Common Room. I think I'd better take you back to Madame Pomfrey."

"She's not a figment of my imagination, James! I might be blind, but I'm not crazy."

"I'm telling you, man, I haven't seen her. Wouldn't I have seen her if she was real?" James told his friend slowly and calmly as if he were, indeed, talking to someone volatile and crazy.

"Maybe not," Sirius stated stubbornly, "I mean, _I_ haven't seen her." He added with a wry grin. James grinned and both boys laughed and the mood in the room went from confrontational back to easy camaraderie.

Professor McGonagall was fed up and frustrated. Sunday had been spent trying to think of the student who would most fit the moniker "Unseen One." But she couldn't think of a single student she didn't know at all. She acknowledged that that was probably very much the point, but it didn't ease her irritation. McGonagall had even gone to Professor Melam, the divination teacher and, by default, her arch rival here at the school. But, if anything, Melam had made everything more confusing.

"It looks to me," Melam had said pompously, "as though this person is hiding in plain sight. She's probably an extremely popular girl whose friends are all just jealous of her enormous untapped skill and potential," Melam continued on dreamily, "One of her friends probably cheated on her with her boyfriend, and continued on with him after I, I mean she, had so gallantly forgiven her and broken up cordially with him." Melam ranted on and on with a mean look on her face, but McGonagall had long stopped listening. Melam was obviously trapped in her own little make-believe world again.

Monday morning arrived and McGonagall was no closer to finding out her mystery student. She scanned the Great Hall eagerly at breakfast with no real hopes of the Unseen One. She had begun to wonder whether this girl had the unknown power to completely disappear at will.

"So," Dumbledore said under his breath, leaning towards her on the pretense of passing the hash browns, "how goes the search? I hear you even asked Professor Melam for help. It was everything you though it would be, I'm sure." his light blue eyes sparkled merrily at her.

"Yes, I now know exactly what _not_ to look for." McGonagall stabbed at her sausages with unnecessary force, her fork hit her plate and the other teachers winced at the loud screech.

"Well, you'd better hurry in narrowing it down, my dear Professor, time is of the essence. It has been an entire two days since Mr. Black was blinded, after all."

"Yes, and about that, whoever did it needs to be severely punished. They did use Dark Magic, after all, and, as you pointed out, whoever did it was probably a student. Besides, it's completely ruined Gryffindor's chances at the Quidditch Cup as long as one of their star players can't see. Can't you do something for the poor boy, or at least punish those involved?" she banged her fists on the table for emphasis. Plates on either side of her jumped. Professor Flitwick's orange juice fell over and he glared at her until she looked away.

"I think," Dumbledore said wearily, "we need to let some events unwind for themselves. The students need to learn how to stand up for themselves against their enemies without teachers to step in. No matter how disastrous it is for the Gryffindor Quidditch team." The Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts had the grace to look ashamed. "But you'd still better keep a close watch out for her, the Unseen One, who knows how things are progressing without us."

"Yes, of course I will, Albus…what on Earth!" she broke off mid sentence, horrorstricken and incredibly angry. As she marched off, Dumbledore chuckled to himself.

"Well, at least we now have some idea of the culprits, not that there was much doubt in the first place," he murmured to himself, his eyes sparkling in amusement.

James, as good of a friend and a brother as he indisputably was, was exactly very gentle or patient. Even keeping this in mind, the self-imposed duty of helping Sirius out while he couldn't see for himself was not going very well at all. Sirius rubbed his shins, wincing in pain after he had rammed them into something for the umpteenth time that day, this time right into the conveniently shin-level bench in the Great Hall.

"Could you have, possibly, I don't know, steered me _away_ from possible injury?" Sirius asked James, annoyed and frustrated at his own helplessness. James blushed, but there was no possible way for Sirius to know that.

"I'm trying, but I didn't think you'd honestly run into the bench. I mean, it's been in the same place for years, after all." James replied with forced humor. Sirius put his hand flat on the stool and slowly sat down, pushing away his unreasonable feelings of anger. James was doing his best, he told himself. As Sirius sat at the table, wondering how on earth he was supposed to know where any of his favorite foods were and James sat next to him staring at Lily Evans discretely, Remus absentmindedly dished Sirius generous helpings of food, but forgot to tell him where anything was on his plate.

Unfortunately, this led Sirius to discover that while it might all eventually mix together in the stomach, some foods, like fruit slices and sausage links, taste disgusting when mixed. Sirius grimaced and felt around frantically for a napkin, not realizing that he had grabbed the Gryffindor tie of the girl next to him by mistake. Sirius spit the gob of masticated food into her tie. As a result, she dumped an entire pitcher of pumpkin juice onto his head. As it ran down his face, Sirius' brow scrunched up in confusion. His friends, having looked helplessly on during the whole debacle, fell off the bench in hysterical laughter.

"What the…" Sirius spluttered, confused, dripping wet, and horrible frustrated.

"What happened?" asked Peter, just returning after talking some of his other friends at the Ravenclaw table.

"P-padfoot j-just spit…" Remus tried to explain, his head peeking over the edge of the table and his voice cracking with ill-suppressed mirth.

"h-his fo-food into a girl's tie," James continued when Remus disappeared under the table laughing hysterically again, "so she dumped,"

"pumpkin juice on his head," Peter finished, guessing what had happened. He too burst into laughter, but it did not quite reach his eyes. Instead, his eyes had an oddly satisfied look in them.

"Isn't anyone going to help me?" Sirius glared in their general direction and motioned towards his pumpkin juice stained visage. His friends just burst into fresh peals of laughter at his expense. They weren't trying to be mean, they were just a jolly, self-absorbed lot who found humor wherever they could. Had it happened to anyone else, Sirius would have joined in the frivolity, but as it was, he was quite annoyed.

"Aww…" came an evil voice that made the boys stop laughing and Sirius stiffen immediately, "have the ickle-baby Gryffindors had a spat? I saw what you did to that girl, my no longer a cousin (and good riddance) have you finally come around to the right side? Finally seen," here she inserted a cruel laugh that the cronies surrounding her tried to copy with varying degrees of success and all a second or two too late, "the filth you've surrounded yourself with, the friends," she sneered, "that you've replaced your family with so willingly?"

"No, really, Bellatrix, you hate my friends? I had no idea! Oh wait, that's right, I'm friends with the very people you can't stand, the people that my ex-_family_ would hate the most. And you can't stand it." Sirius threw his meanest face towards her, or towards where he guessed her to be, unfortunately he happened to be off by about six inches. This made Bellatrix's sneer even more pronounced and nasty.

"I hate people much more than you and your worthless little friends, Cousin, much more. And I've ruined someone more completely than I've ever ruined you. So don't think you're special, my dear cousin, you may never see again, but she'll never be whole," Bellatrix hissed at him so that only those closest to her could hear, much of the Gryffindors had their ears turned (not so) discretely towards the confrontation trying to hear the latest gossip.

"You're the one who did this to me?" Sirius growled, his blank grey eyes flashing in anger.

"Don't sound so surprised," she smirked triumphantly, right before being hit by three different curses. A battle soon broke out between the Marauders, (along with a few other random Gryffindors who had been eagerly awaiting a chance to fight the Slytherins) and Bellatrix's posse. The students didn't know why they were fighting, except for the Marauders. The Marauders were furious, and with good reason.

"What do you think you're doing?" Lily Evans asked sternly, standing up, her hands on her hips, green eyes flashing dangerously, and her hair even looking like it was on fire. It was the Lily she was often forced to hide, the angry, livid, Lily Evans.

"Oh, leave them be, Lils," ordered Jeannette Hall, "don't be such a party pooper. Let the teachers take care of it." Lily looked torn, but sat back down, her Prefects badge glinting in the light. 'What was the harm in it, after all,' Lily asked herself, forsaking her nature to keep her friends. James Potter, even though he was busy fighting off two Slytherins at once, noticed the defeated look on her face right before a green light stunning charm narrowly missed him, and exploded a goblet of pumpkin juice on the table behind him, and he turned back to the fight.

Some of the younger students, seeing the Great Hall already in chaos, started a House-wide food fight. The first years, it being only their second week in Hogwarts, were wide-eyed and terrified.

"What's going on here?" asked a stern faced Professor McGonagall, after having made her way miraculously unscathed to the epicenter of the fight. Everything stopped around her except the mashed potatoes, flung just before she had spoken, which flew in slow motion right into her hair. The already thin line of her mouth disappeared entirely. "What were you thinking! All of you have crossed a line, completely obliterated it! Honestly, this is the worst hooliganism I have ever seen! I hope you all had your fun, because none of you will be having any for quite some time." If steam could have poured out of her flaring nostrils, it would have been at that moment. She reached up and flicked away much of the mashed potatoes. "I want an explanation for your behavior and I want it now. Well?" her foot tapped the floor impatiently.

"She confessed to blinding me," Sirius told McGonagall bitterly, from his perch on the bench, "she told me that it was no big deal. She had hurt someone worse before." McGonagall blinked rapidly, a flash of extreme anger showed on her face, then she turned and looked briefly at the staff table. With a conflicted look she turned away from the students.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that very serious accusation, Mr. Black," she said quietly, "A group detention for all students will take place tonight in the Great Hall. Anyone not there at 7 o'clock will be more severely punished. First years will be exempt," she added more loudly. She walked back to the staff table and started a very serious looking conversation with Dumbledore. None of the students had ever seen her this angry. Even the teachers looked apprehensive and didn't dare complain that their free time in the evening was being taken away by this mass detention. Not a single student or teacher, other than McGonagall and Dumbledore, said a word as they finished breakfast and departed for morning classes. If the first years had been afraid before, it was nothing to how they felt now.


	6. Discoveries

As the students in the Great Hall had the biggest food fight of their entire lives, Taylor was enjoying a very different sort of breakfast. As was her custom, she had gotten up very early to avoid the other girls in her dorm. After she had showered and dressed in the uniform she had laid out the night before (in an effort to escape her dorm room that much more quickly), she had gone down to the kitchens.

"Good morning, Blippy, can I do anything to help you today?" Taylor asked one of the hurried house elves kindly. Every morning it was the same; every morning she would ask if she could help the elves serve breakfast and every morning…

"No thank you, Miss. If Miss would just sit down over there Blippy will get her something to eat. What would Miss like this morning?" No matter how many times she went down to the kitchens, no matter how many times she attempted to engage them in conversation, no matter how often she told them to call her "Taylor," the house elves would not lose their formality with her. She sighed.

"Thank you, Blippy. Can I have some pancakes, maybe? And sausages?" she looked down at the elf hopefully.

"Why of course, Miss! Whatever Miss wants! Blippy will get Miss her pancakes and sausages in just a minute." Blippy hurried off and quickly disappeared among the throng of scurrying house elves. So, once again, Taylor ate breakfast completely alone, besides the fifty-odd house elves scurrying about.

"Bye Blippy, have a nice day," Taylor called over her shoulder as she climbed out of the portrait hole. Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she staggered a bit under the weight.

She started wandering towards Transfiguration, knowing that she would be tremendously early even at the slow pace she was moving, yet she had nothing else to do. She stopped in the middle of the corridor and began counting bricks. '1,2,3...100! Ok, enough of that, it was boring anyways. Off to Transfiguration, I guess,' she thought to herself. Suddenly, out of no where the strap of her bag was yanked hard and she fell to the floor. She closed her eyes, knowing what was coming. The kicks hit her mercilessly all over her body, she was forced to curl in the fetal position to protect her face. Her arms encircled her head protectively and her eyes closed. Taylor didn't know why, but the Slytherins always seemed to enjoy muggle dueling, at least when dealing with her. Maybe it was the satisfying thumps and squeals of pain each kick elicited, or maybe they were telling her that she was not wizard enough to wizard duel.

"Stupid little blood traitor," someone hissed under his breath. With a couple more bruising kicks to her back, they were gone as quickly as they had arrived. Taylor lay there, in pain, for a few more minutes. Then she slowly raised herself up, wincing at the pain, and leaned herself against a wall for support. She wondered what the Marauders had done to make them angry this time. If her pain was any indication, then it wasn't anything good. She hadn't been sitting in the deserted corridor for long before she heard footsteps. She tensed up immediately, expecting the Slytherins to be back for more. Then she cocked her head to one side curiously and relaxed slightly.

"James! Remus…Peter…where are you, mates?" came an increasingly familiar voice, "Come on, you guys. This isn't funny, and I'm going to be late for Transfiguration. Doesn't McGonagall hate me enough as it is?" A hand felt its way around the corner, shortly followed by a handsome boy that Taylor immediately recognized as Sirius Black. She sighed loudly; she sure was seeing a lot of that boy recently, and usually in some of her worst moments, too. Well, her worst moments or his, that is. Sirius turned his sightless eyes directly at her.

"Who's there?" He asked roughly, without even an ounce of fear. He was Sirius Black, after all, so meeting an unknown and possibly dangerous person alone in the corridors while completely blind, did not even faze him. Or at least he didn't let his fear show.

"Relax," she croaked out, "it's nobody."

"Well Nobody, are you okay?" Sirius asked concernedly, not recognizing her voice but sensing no harm in it either. He also detected much more pain in her voice than she would have liked.

When she didn't answer, Sirius made his way slowly, hesitantly, towards her, his hand running along the wall until he bumped softly into her. She hissed in pain. Sliding down the wall into a sitting position, Sirius couldn't help but worry about the unknown person next to him. He felt comfortable, almost as though he already knew who it was he was sitting next to. A sudden memory of holding a girl's arm sprung out at him. He reached over to her. Although he took hold of her arm gently, Taylor whimpered in pain.

"What are you doing down here alone?" Taylor asked him, trying to distract him and erase the concerned furrows from his brow. For his sake as much as hers, he could not find out about the routine beatings she received from the Slytherins. She didn't fool herself into believing that he would care any more about her being beaten than anyone else at Hogwarts, but he was a good person. And he felt that it was his responsibility to protect people from his cousin's evil gang. Either that or he would just use it as a little needed but much appreciated excuse to duel the Slytherins. And if they won that fight, as they always did, and the Slytherins found out it was her fault…Taylor shuddered. She could just imagine the beating she would get if the Marauders were to confront the Slytherins. She would actually have to go to the Hospital Wing.

Sirius had already been concerned about the girl sitting on the floor in who knows what corridor, but now that he recognized her voice…

"What's happened to you?" he asked, worried that he couldn't see to check her over for injuries.

"Nothing," Taylor insisted, "why are you down here alone? Where are your friends?"

"Stop avoiding the question, Girl-Whose-Name-I-Still-Haven't-Figured-Out, or GWNISHFO. For short I can call you Gwn, or IshFo, but for now, just answer the question."

"It's nothing, I'm fine. Besides, you're not one to talk. Plus, Gwn," (pronounced Gwin), "is a much better nickname than Ishfo, puh-lease."

"Oh, I suppose you could do better."

"Hmm…I can't really think of any good nicknames for you."

"But there are dozens of nicknames for me, observe the master: Siri, Siri-bear, Siri-pede, Sirius-poo, Siri-poo-bear, Siri-iri-ding-dong"

"Stop, please stop, for the love of all that is good and holy stop," Taylor burst into laughter, then sucked in a long breath of air in pain.

"What's wrong? Are you okay, Gwnie? What happened to you? You seemed fine last night."

"It's nothing. I just…just…fell down a flight of stairs," Taylor stuttered nervously. Either Sirius Black believed her lie, making him stupider than the Slytherins claimed, or he chose to let the matter drop for her sake. "So, why are you alone, again?" Once again she directed the conversation away from herself, Sirius shrugged.

"After the whole Great Hall fiasco, they were so angry with the Slytherins and McGonagall I think they forgot I couldn't exactly find my way to Transfiguration on my own." He grimaced, "At least I hope that's what happened. The Slytherins could have jumped them…" he trailed off worriedly.

"I wouldn't worry about that," Taylor mumbled.

"What?" he asked slightly suspiciously. 'How would this girl, already linked to the Slytherins once, know what the Slytherins, were doing, nasty little buggers that they are?' It occurred to Sirius that he still didn't know who this girl was.

"I mean, they can handle themselves, can't they?"

"We can beat the Slytherins with both hands tied behind our backs," Sirius bragged, puffing his chest out.

"Exactly," Taylor reassured him, "so even if they do run into each other, your friends will be fine. So," she continued, curious despite herself, "what happened in the Great Hall?"

"Weren't you there?" Sirius asked, startled. He thought everyone, even the late risers, knew about the already infamous food fight by now. Gossip did travel fast at Hogwarts, after all.

"Obviously not, or I wouldn't be asking."

"Bellatrix," he told her bitterly, slamming a fist into the floor, "she picked a fight with us. Ended up with a massive inter-house food fight and mashed potatoes in McGonagall's hair."

"Oh my goody-goody gumdrops! What did she do?"

"Um, well, she yelled a lot. And everyone has detention in the Great Hall tonight at seven."

"Frick-a-potamus-rex!" Taylor cursed creatively. Sirius snickered despite the sobering prospect of a school-wide detention.

"Yeah, my friends were pretty upset too. Probably why they forgot me in the Great Hall," he continued ruefully.

'_RING!_' the warning bell rang through the school.

"Oh no, oh no! We're going to be late! I think we should be getting to class!" Taylor said frantically, jumping up and waving her arms around frantically.

"Relax. I've been late loads of times." Sirius told her confidently, amused at her panic-attack, although he couldn't even see her frantic gestures and facial expression of pure terror.

"When McGonagall's had mashed potatoes in her hair and given the whole school a detention?"

"Touché," Sirius replied, now also panicking slightly. Taylor grabbed his arm and dragged him along, wincing horribly in pain. She would have stopped to heal her back, now probably bruising spectacularly, but with McGonagall so angry…

"Good thing you ran into me," Taylor told Sirius conversationally to distract herself from the pain, and him from the reason they were slowing down, "you were going in the wrong direction entirely."

"Yes, lucky me," he said sarcastically. So far Gwn (as he insisted on referring to her as he still didn't know her real name) hadn't lead him into a wall or other stationary object for laughs, far surpassing James already in the job of being his seeing eye dog. 'Still,' Sirius though seriously, 'who knew what could happen, really. Gwn could still turn out to be an evil psycho killer who led him to a remote, deserted section of the castle and murdered him horribly. She could also still turn out to be a hallucination. Or, even more frightening, she could secretly be a member of his fan club.'

"Almost there," he heard her mutter to herself after having to make a detour after what sounded like the scraping of a moving staircase, 'if not for those stupid bloody moving staircases…I swear they're out to get me…conspiracies…like the Cornish pixies, pineapples, and cows…Ah," she added to him, not seeming to realize she had been murmuring nonsense quietly to herself, "here we are, Black, just a couple more doors and…"

'_RING!'_ went the final bell, resounding firmly just as Taylor pushed open the door.

"BLACK!" yelled McGonagall, "I assume you have a reason for being late to my class," she added in a low, deadly voice. She didn't notice Taylor, still clutching his arm, now more out of trepidation than necessity. Sirius wondered why she was only yelling at him. He still felt Gwn on his arm; she hadn't disappeared like she usually did when someone else showed up. For a split second he wondered if he _had_ hallucinated Gwn. Because if McGonagall didn't see her, but he still felt her presence…that would mean that she was only real to him. If that were the case, she was a hallucination brought on by a blow to the head. Well, only one way to find out.

"I'm sorry, Professor," Sirius said apologetically, which was so much unlike his usual self that McGonagall took notice even through her rage, "I got lost, Professor. I couldn't find my way here from the Great Hall. But, luckily I ran into someone who is also in this class. She brought me here." For the first time in her entire life, the attention of the entire classroom was on Taylor. McGonagall looked at her sharply.

"Are you new here?" McGonagall asked her sharply, peering down at her intently. Taylor felt a momentary pain in her heart; she didn't like to be reminded that she was unrecognized by the majority of Hogwarts, and even most of the teachers. Sirius, however, thought this a wonderful explanation. He had been wondering how he had overlooked her outrageous personality and had been feeling guilty that he didn't know who she was, but if she were a new student…that changed everything. If that were the case, no guilt was necessary.

"No, Professor," came Taylor's hesitant voice, "I've been here for seven years now." The class giggled at the look on their Professor's face and her apparent obliviousness. Sirius' face went emotionless with disappointment and self-anger.

"Well Mr. Black and Miss…"

"Brown, Ma'am," she supplied softly.

"Yes, well, considering the circumstances, I will not give you detentions. Both of you will sit down, and I will tolerate no more interruptions to my class," she surveyed them both closely, making Taylor feel uncomfortable and leaving Sirius oblivious. "Will you please lead Mr. Black to his normal seat, Miss Brown?" Taylor tightened her grip on Sirius' arm and led him over to the open seat next to James Potter.

"Told you she was real," Sirius whispered to James triumphantly after Taylor had scurried off to her normal seat in the back corner. She slumped low in her desk, Taylor was uncomfortable being the center of attention after being unnoticed and unseen for so long.

Minerva had been looking for the Unseen One constantly but fruitlessly. Which was why she was so very surprised when she fell right into her lap. Not literally, of course. Still, Minerva had not known immediately that the Unseen One had arrived. Until Sirius had pointed her out, Minerva had been oblivious, which was, rather the point, as Dumbledore had said. Despite forewarning, she felt like she had been hit over the head with a sledgehammer when it was verified that she had completely overlooked a student for seven years.

'Maybe,' thought Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress, Transfiguration Professor as she lectured the class, 'I never noticed her because she isn't particularly bright. See, she doesn't even seem to be paying any attention to my lecture. Yes, that will be it.' She noted Taylor's downcast eyes and apparent inattention. Needing to justify away the guilt she felt at practically abandoning a student, Minerva decided to quiz her mystery student; if she found out that Miss Brown was hopelessly incompetent, she might find her reason for her own ignorance of Brown's existence.

"Miss Brown," McGonagall said brusquely, "come up here and demonstrate for the class the spell I just described." Minerva, the person behind the professor's mask, felt a twinge of guilt at the stricken look on Miss Brown's face.

What she didn't know, however, was that Taylor's grades were the best of her year's. Taylor was only afraid because Gryffindors shared Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws. Her pride would never let her purposely mess up the spell, but the Ravenclaws would hate her for succeeding. It was a no-win situation. Taylor walked stiffly (she was still covered in bruises after all) to the front of the classroom, the eyes of her classmates upon her.

"Pegadamente!" She pointed her wand at a spare quill. The quill began to swell and bulge until, 'pop,' there was a tiny Pegasus sitting on the desk. It nudged Taylor's hand playfully with its nose and she patted him absentmindedly, glancing around the room with apprehension.

"Very good," McGonagall exclaimed, "twenty points to Gryffindor. This is a very complicated spell. Once mastered, however, it can prove very useful. The tiny Pegasus can be used to deliver messages."

"Then why don't we use them instead of owls?" one girl asked, jealously eyeing the friendly Pegasus circling Taylor's head and diving around playfully.

"Like I said, this spell is hard to master, that was nicely done, Miss Brown, by the way," The Ravenclaws glared at Taylor angrily. They had wanted to prove that they could master that spell before anyone. "Also, the Pegasus are naturally curious creatures and easily sidetracked especially on long deliveries. Overall, owls are much more reliable creatures."

The rest of class continued. Many students attempted to transfigure their quills into Pegasus. No one got it right on the first attempt, but the Ravenclaws succeeded on their third tries. Taylor's Pegasus continued to fly around her playfully, but a couple of the Ravenclaws sent their Pegasus to dive bomb hers, and she was eventually forced to change him back into a quill for his own safety. Professor McGonagall kept a close eye on both Taylor and Sirius for the rest of the period, pausing only to take several points off the guilty Ravenclaws.

"Don't forget about the group detention in the Great Hall tonight at seven," she called after the class as the bell rang. Then she set off to tell Dumbledore her discovery.


	7. Detention

"Dumbledore!" McGonagall called out, dashing into his office.

"What is it, my dear Professor?" Dumbledore asked her calmly from his desk, raising one eyebrow.

"I found her, Albus, I found the Unseen One," she panted, falling into one of the chairs in front of Dumbledore's desk for support; she had run all the way from her classroom, and she wasn't exactly a youngster anymore. Dumbledore's sparkling eyes took in the sight of his Deputy Headmistress, she was more bedraggled and comical than he had ever seen her. Even her hair was falling out of its normally tight bun. She was clutching a lopsided stack of parchments to her chest.

"I knew you would, Professor," Dumbledore told her solemnly, still observing her over his half moon spectacles with amusement, "and just in time for phase two of my plans, too."

"Phase two?" McGonagall panted warily.

"My dear Professor, might I suggest taking up Yoga, I, myself, find it quite soothing, plus it strengthens one's core muscles."

"What are you implying, Albus? Are you saying I'm fat?" McGonagall sniffed. No woman likes to have her figure insulted and McGonagall was, after all, a woman, albeit an aging one.

"Not at all," Dumbledore said, a slightly frightened put on his face by the hole he'd dug for himself, "um, yes, that's right, Phase two. Phase two is perhaps the most complex plan I've ever undertaken. It takes us into uncharted waters of the deepest depth. It's where we toy with the emotions of two teens destined for each other, even if they don't know it yet, all for the greater good, of course. It's so complicated that even I don't even know how to start. Any ideas, Minerva?"

"So basically we're playing matchmaker for a couple of teenagers under our protection. Haven't I already expressed…"

"how deeply opposed you are to this? Why yes, yes you have."

"Didn't I tell you to stop…"

"Finishing your sentences?" catching the look on Professor McGonagall's face, Dumbledore decided to move on, "I think that the whole thing is for the best. It's not as though we'll be encouraging them to go at it like bunny rabbits in the Spring, although, if that would help…it is for the greater good after all…no, best to just put them together again and again subtly. It would also help slightly if I knew who the lucky girl in question was. Minerva?" McGonagall had been watching Dumbledore, still appalled at the suggestion of encouraging student to 'go at it,' she shuddered.

"Yes?" she asked, snapping out of her reverie.

"Well, who is our mystery student? Who is the Unseen One?"

"Taylor Brown," McGonagall told him. Dumbledore scrunched his brow in confusion.

"Does she still even go here?"

"Apparently so…wait, you know who she is?"

"I thought she left after her second year," Dumbledore continued absently to himself.

"Was she the girl who was friends with the Hufflepuffs?" McGonagall asked, her brow scrunching up.

"I think so…"

"And now we're trying to get Miss-Invisible-For-Five-Years and Sirius Black, infamous school player together? How's that going to work?"

"I think you'll find they'll work together better than you'd think."

"Well," McGonagall said, "we'd better hope so."

"Yes," said Dumbledore sadly, "yes we had."

"Are you sure it was the same girl?" James asked his friend doubtfully.

"Yes," Sirius replied shortly, "she's the same girl who found me and the same one who talked to me last night."

"How can you be sure if you can't see?" Sirius glared at him.

"Her voice must sound the same," Remus intervened quickly, hoping to stop the argument he could see coming. Remus was often playing mediator in his group of volatile friends. Which he found ironic, seeing as he was supposed to be the violent werewolf.

"Yeah, it does," Sirius told them, "but also, I don't know how to explain it, I just _know_, you know?"

"No, mate," Peter said obliviously, "I don't. I think the Slytherins scrambled your brains." Remus punched his arm, "Ouch! Remus, that hurt," Peter whined.

"Like when I know its my Lily-Flower in the room before I even see her?" James asked, completely ignoring Peter's stupidity and Remus' annoyed response, a far-away, dreamy look in his eyes.

"Dude," Sirius said over the noise of Peter and Remus' escalating argument, "are you still on about her? I told you to either talk to her already, or find a new girl."

"I can't just find another girl," James said, appalled, "Lily's different, special."

"I don't know why you're so hung up on her. She's pretty, but she has no personality."

"Like you're one to talk," James told him, annoyed, straining to see him over his other two friends, who were busy wrestling on the table between them in the middle of the Common Room, "since when has a single one of your girls had a personality? Besides, Lily has a wonderful personality, its just somewhat hidden by her 'friends.'"

"No offence to your 'Flower,' mate, but I just don't see it. Why can you see it and I can't?"

"Maybe the same way I never see that girl you're always on about. Not much of a looker, is she. Oh, I forgot, you haven't even seen her yet," James teased.

"Why don't you tell us how you noticed Lily," Remus spoke up, finally done fighting with Peter, who had left to go talk to some of his other friends after a sound beating, and sensing the rising tension between his other two friends.

"Well," James began, a dreamy far-away look in his eyes.

_It was the middle of sixth year. James was running away from McGonagall after filling the entire entrance hall with pudding. Somehow he had gotten separated from his fellow Marauders. He dashed quickly down a corridor and into a secret passage behind a statue of a goblin wearing a tutu. At the end of the passage, just before darting into the next corridor, something stopped him._

"_It's going to be okay, Benny, I know it seems like a really long time now, but spring break will be here soon. You'll see your parents and little sister again in a couple of months." James heard someone sobbing, lifting the tapestry hiding the passage at this end a little to one side, he peered out. There was a beautiful red-head girl, one he recognized as a fellow 6th__ year Gryffindor. Something was a bit strange, though. The group of girls he associated her with was a group of girls that, although he didn't think them that evil, would never be caught dead helping out a younger student. And here was one of those girls hugging a sobbing first year, comforting him and looking very sympathetic and kind._

"_But I miss my Mum so much," Benny mumbled softly through his tears._

"_Shh, it's okay, Benny."_

"_How would you know?" Benny snuffled. If Lily felt any revulsion at having her shirt snotted on, she showed no indication._

"_I was really homesick my first year too, I thought the world was over. My sister hated me, I didn't get to talk to my parents much because they don't understand owl post, and I thought that I came second always with my best friend. It wasn't exactly the best year for me." Lily tried to comfort the little boy._

"_Did everything turn out okay?" Benny asked, wiping his eyes on his robes. Lily hesitated._

"_Yeah," Lily said, patting him on the head, "everything turned out just fine." James noticed a tear slide down Lily's cheek. For some unexplainable reason, he felt the need to pull her into his arms and kiss her tears away. Although James had had many girlfriends, he had never felt this protective of any of them. Quite frankly, it scared him witless._

"_Beat it kid," came a cruel voice that was not Lily's, "stop annoying our friend." Benny looked up at Jeanette with frightened eyes. Lily patted him on the back._

"_Bye Benny," she whispered to him softly, almost inaudibly._

_Jeanette turned to Lily, "how many times have I told you that consorting with first years is bad for your image. And what's bad for your image is bad for our image. Anyway, we've all been waiting for you in the library. We need help with our homework, every subject." James thought he saw a spark of defiance in Lily's eyes, but it was too soon distinguished. As Lily followed Jeanette to the library, James rammed his fist into the wall. Shaking his now stinging hand, James pulled the tapestry fully away from the wall and stepped out._

"_POTTER!" A pudding covered McGonagall yelled from the end of the corridor._

"_Yes, Professor?" James asked, turning his most charming smile her way._

"_A week of detention for you and your hooligan friends!"_

"All in all," James finished his story, "it wasn't that bad of day."

"You've got to be kidding," Remus gawked, "we had detention for a week, a whole week! You complained the whole time about missing Quidditch."

"Come now, Remus, you have to admit that finding your soul mate is more important than sports, even if it is Quidditch, and even if I didn't know it at the time.""What, know that love is more important than Quidditch or that Lily Evans is your soul mate?" Sirius queried.

"Just because neither of you have a girl, doesn't mean you have to take it out on me," James complained.

"Hey, speak for yourself," Sirius told him, "I have plenty of girls.""Not ones you have any feelings for," James retorted, Remus burst into laughter, and Sirius had no response.

"Hey Moony," Sirius called out after awhile, "isn't it about time you got yourself a girl?"

"Sirius," James warned, watching Remus visibly deflate. Sirius winced.

"No, it's alright. Sirius, you know that I can't date anyone, no matter how much I might like her."

"Sorry Remus," Sirius looked down at his hands.

"Speaking of girls," James said, for once trying to alleviate the tension instead of build upon it, "when's your next monthly, Remus?"

"James!" Remus hissed, his eyes darting to each of those around them in turn.

"What? I happen to look forward to our little romps." Sirius burst into laughter. "What?" James asked.

"Do either of you realize how perverted that sounded?" Sirius snorted. Neither Remus or James looked amused.

"Grow up, Sirius," James told him, folding his arms crossly, "you know you enjoy Remus' monthlies as much as I do."

A look of horror crossed Sirius' face. "Guys," he said, gripping the arm of his chair, "I don't think I'll be able to help this time." Comprehension slowly dawned on the other boys faces.

"Maybe you won't be blind once you're…you know, _Padfoot_. What do you think Moony?"

"I don't know," Remus said slowly, "I think it would depend on the curse used to blind him. If it was only meant for humans then its possible that…" Sirius grinned widely, seeing this Remus quickly cut him off, "but I can't be sure. We'd best test it out before…you know." The boys all nodded their agreement. James and Remus looked unsure, but Sirius couldn't help but feel hopeful.

"_All students 2__nd__ year and older are to report to the Great Hall!"_ came the voice of Professor McGonagall, resounding throughout Hogwarts.

"Well boys, seeing as we can't claim we forgot now," Sirius said grimly, "let's do this thing. And," he added as his friends got up, "don't forget me again." Remus and James looked at each other sheepishly, then they simultaneously grabbed one of Sirius' arms. James forced Sirius' head down roughly as they went through the portrait hole.

In the Great Hall the heads of houses were getting the students into alphabetical lines by year. McGonagall was smiling almost as manically as Filch usually did and brandishing a long list. James and Remus led Sirius to a spot between Missy Cauldman (the president of the Sirius Black fan club and a lesser member of the Jeanette Hall clan) and Taylor Brown. James studied Taylor intently for a few long moments then left with Remus to go stand by Peter.

"So, did she pass inspection?" Remus asked James quietly once they were in line.

"You noticed that?"

"You weren't exactly being subtle. If Sirius had seen he'd be glaring at you, by the way."

"Why?"

"Are you really that thick?"

"Apparently so. Why?" he repeated.

"Even if he doesn't realize it yet, he likes her." Remus explained.

"Sirius likes lots of girls."

"No, Sirius lusts after lots of girls. And usually has his way with them too, before he gets bored, that is. But he never actually likes them. I'm telling you, this one is different."

"I suppose you could be right…"

"I know I am," Remus whispered smugly, "so, did she pass?"

"Why does it matter? If he likes her he'll go for it."

"I told you, this one is different. You two are close, like brothers…"

"We are brothers."

"Exactly. A negative comment from you now could ruin the whole thing."

"But if he likes her…"

"It won't matter, if you don't like her he won't go for it."

"But if he really likes her wouldn't he go after her no matter what?""I'm not saying it won't hurt him. I mean, at this point it probably wouldn't matter, but eventually it would hurt him. Even if he doesn't realize why he's hurting."

"He really likes this girl, huh.""That's what I've been trying to tell you."

"And if I don't like her…""Well, do you?"

"Jeez, I don't know Moony! I don't know the girl at all. Just a couple of days ago I didn't know she existed."

"Neither did I, James. Neither did I."

"She isn't his normal type, that's for sure."

"She isn't ugly," Remus defended her quickly.

"She isn't a slutty bimbo either,"

"That isn't a bad thing, James," Remus scolded him sternly."But that's what he normally goes for," James retorted.

"Maybe so," Remus said slowly, "but maybe that's why he goes through them so quickly, because it's what he thinks he wants, not what he needs.""And this Brown girl is who he needs?" James asked skeptically.

"I don't know, James. We'll just have to see."

"And keep a close eye on them, too, right?" Remus was about to respond when…

"Whatcha guys talking about?" Peter asked having missed the entire conversation due to his normal bad timing.

Meanwhile, McGonagall was partnering people up at the head of the line and collecting their wands to prevent cheating as she went.

"Let's see…" McGonagall studied the list for a moment, "Adaeux and Cauldman up in Quidditch stands scrubbing the bleachers…Black and Brown down in the dungeons scrubbing cauldrons…" McGonagall smirked at her own genius, she was better at matchmaking than she thought: within only a couple of hours she had come up with a chance to stick the victims…er…participants alone together in close confines with the romantic…er…cauldrons, and the delightful scent of…old potions and dirty water. McGonagall nodded happily to herself as she continued down the line making pairs of people scrub pots and pans in the kitchens, bedpans in the hospital wing, trophies in the trophy room, the many bathrooms, the banisters of many of the stairways, desks in many of the classrooms (both used and unused), and even the vanishing cabinet on the fifth floor. The castle was going to be cleaner than it had been in years, and she was having more fun than she'd had in she didn't even want to think about how long. 'Maybe it's time to bring back karaoke night in the teacher's lounge,' she thought to herself, then shuddered, 'no, nothing is worth hearing Slughorn's drunken singing again.'

Taylor put a hand on Sirius's shoulder, going on tiptoe and loudly whispering to make up the height difference, "I sense an overall scrubbing theme." Sirius let out a bark-like laugh that was so rarely seen by anyone other than his friends. Taylor got down, grabbed his arm and prepared to lead him to the dungeons.

"Oh no, Sir-pood-a-loo," Missy Cauldman twittered annoyingly in Sirius' ear, resting her hands on his chest. She was jealous of the laughter another girl had evoked in him. Taylor laughed at the nickname, 'Siri-pood-a-loo,' she mouthed to herself in amusement, and vowed to torment him with it later. Taylor was already more comfortable around Sirius than she wanted to admit. "I wanted to work with you!" Missy continued. Her partner, Andrew Adaeux, frowned, he had been happy to be working with Missy. He had figured that if he played his cards right he'd get a make-out session in the stands. "Andy-wandy-_randy_," Missy said, turning her attention to him and wiggling her eyebrows suggestively, "will you switch with Sirius and work with…" Missy's gaze fell on Taylor contemptuously, "_her_. I'm sure she doesn't mind," her eyes turned from Taylor and she started to pull Sirius out of the Great Hall. Andrew sighed in disappointment and glanced at Taylor ponderously. 'I wonder if she'll make-out with me…' he thought.

"Actually," Taylor responded unexpectedly before Sirius could say anything, "you'll find that I would rather work in the dungeons cleaning cauldrons with Sirius. I'm sure _you_ won't mind, you slutty little…_batch of cookies_." Before Missy could respond, Taylor pulled Sirius quickly out of the Great Hall and towards the dungeons. Sirius admired her bravery in removing them both from the torture that was Missy Cauldman, but couldn't help but snicker at her word choice. Once they were out of the Great Hall, Taylor began muttering to herself frantically.

"Frickum-frackum! I'm doomed. I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead! The Soul Sucking Vultures of Pure Unadulterated Evil are going to murder me in my sleep. The only solution is to stop sleeping completely, become extremely sleep-deprived, wander around the castle aimlessly until the bags under my eyes wouldn't qualify as carry-on baggage but eventually someone will mistake me for a vampire and drive a stake through my heart. And once they realize their mistake I'll be dead. Then I'll become a ghost and haunt someplace even worse than a u-bend like Moaning Myrtle does. I suppose a urinal would be sufficiently nasty. Or the barrel of flobberworms in Potions. And the only point to my existence will be scaring firsties, the poor dears, and talking to Slughorn when he gets drunk about the good ol' days. And, and, and…" Sirius' finely shaped eyebrows shot up towards his gorgeous hairline. He fought the urge to laugh and hug her reassuringly. What was wrong with him? And where had she been hiding all these years.

"It'll be okay Gwnie," Sirius said comfortingly, settling for patting her awkwardly on the shoulder.

"No it won't!" Taylor said, "In order to escape life with the flobberworms, I'll be forced to come up with a false identity for myself. Hmm…how does Rolyat Worb sound? It's my name backwards, so I probably won't forget. But would that be too obvious? Wait! What was it again?"

"Rolyat Worb," Sirius supplied with an amused grin.

"Right-e-o then. Now that I have a false name all I need is to move away to a far away land and become a stripper," Taylor said matter-of-factly.

"What?" Sirius exclaimed.

"Someone who dances around n…""I know what a stripper is! What I want to know is why you would become one!"

"Well, she wouldn't expect it. No one would expect it. They would never find me as a stripper. The only problem is that I can't dance, have no sense of rhythm, and am uncomfortable naked around strangers…oh well, maybe I could become a circus clown. Although, maybe running away to the circus is a little too cliché…they'd be sure to find me there. Plus, I would look silly with rainbow hair."

"Are you crazy?" Sirius asked, "Missy isn't going to kill you in your sleep. She's really not that bad…"

"Well of course _Missy_ won't be the one to kill me, don't talk crazy! She may be evil, but she doesn't have the guts, but Missy will tell Jeannette and _Jeannette_ will kill me in my sleep. Which is why I'll have to either have a stake driven through my heart and haunt the flobberworms or become a stripper. Neither sounds all that pleasant."

"Come on, Missy isn't that angry, I mean, you didn't do anything!"

"Poor naïve Sirius," Taylor patted his arm distractedly. Sirius started, that was the first time anyone had called him naïve, "you didn't see how angry she looked. Plus you don't know how evil girls can be. Especially someone who's in the Soul-Sucking-Vulture clan!"

"Of Pure Evil?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed, pulling open the door of the dungeons. "Hey, Black," Sirius was startled by the use of his last name, especially after all the random things she'd just been telling him, "isn't someone supposed to be in here with us. To supervise the…er, scrubbing of the cauldrons?"

"No one's there?" Sirius asked, surprised, "Are you sure we're in the right room?"

"If we aren't then there a heck of a lot of cauldrons stacked in here for no reason." She led him over to a seat and showed him exactly where the bucket of soapy water and the stack of cauldrons were. Then she handed him a rag and sat down herself. They talked congenially for a while.

"Are you seriously worried about what those girls will do to you?" Sirius asked several clean cauldrons later.

"Oh my good golly! Was I talking out loud the whole way down here? I'm sorry, I was just scared and stuff, I'm not really as crazy as all that, I promise!" Taylor groaned, "did I really say I was going to become a stripper called Rolyat Worb?" Sirius nodded, "Ugh! I've got to stop letting my mouth get away from me! I guess I'm just not used to talking with people." Sirius put his hand on her arm, accurately guessing where she was from her long spiel, which effectively ended her tirade.

"I didn't mind, honest," he told her. He wasn't lying; she amused him more than any other girl ever had. She blushed darkly, but he obviously couldn't see that. Taylor mentally smacked herself for her dark red cheeks. 'Honestly, she should stop thinking like one of his fan girls; he hadn't said he liked her, only that he didn't mind her ramblings. He was probably just trying not to make her feel bad.' "So, are you worried about those girls in your dorm?" Sirius asked again.

"No," she lied unconvincingly.

"Could've fooled me," Sirius told her, "look, if you're seriously worried, there's an extra bed in our dorm. You could sleep there tonight, if you want," he added quickly. Taylor considered his offer. She had been planning on sleeping in the Common Room, as she did sometimes to avoid the wrath of her roomies. On one hand a bed would be much more comfortable, but on the other, the aforementioned bed was in the boys dormitories, strictly off limits.

"You won't even know I'm there," she told him before she could talk herself out of it. Sirius seriously doubted that he could forget there was a girl sleeping just one bed down from him. 'Maybe this was a bad idea…'

"It's no problem," Sirius found himself saying, "I do owe you, after all; you've found me a couple times when I've been lost, but don't let it get around that the infamous Sirius Black got lost. Plus, if I wasn't so good looking you wouldn't be in this situation in the first place." Taylor snorted. "What? It's true!"

"Whatever you say, Siri-pood-a-loo," Taylor mocked him.

"Hey! That's right, yet another nickname for me," Sirius said, "and I hate all of them. Well, not 'Padfoot,' but all the rest."

"What about Gryffindork? Not even that one?" Taylor snickered.

"That one's more of a term of endearment from my dear cousins," Sirius said bitterly.

"I'm sorry, Sirius," Taylor apologized.

"Why? It's not your fault that my family is a bunch of evil soul sucking Deatheaters." Sirius banged his fist on the table, still clutching a sopping rag. Suds went up his nose and he snorted painfully. The mood lightened considerably. Before they knew it, the last cauldron was scrubbed and it was later than they'd imagined.


	8. More Detention

"Lupin, Pettigrew, Potter, and Olong," McGonagall rattled off her long list, "you boys are to clean the fourth floor boys' restroom. I may tolerate a lot from you boys normally," she ignored the snorts from all those around them, "but I won't tolerate any shenanigans from you tonight!" she collected their wands and continued down the line, informing everyone that she'd return their wands at breakfast. As she left she could be seen smiling evilly; it was a well known fact that McGonagall owed the Marauders for many pranks they pulled on her and the rest of the staff, and also that the fourth floor boy's restroom was absolutely disgustingly filthy, it being a boys bathroom after all. 'The rest of the staff think I've gone 'soft' but I'll show them,' McGonagall thought to herself, 'and with the added bonuses of revenge and…phase two.'

"Shenanigans?" James mouthed at Remus behind McGonagall's back, unfazed by McGonagall's attempts at revenge and grinning in amusement. Remus also chuckled, and the four boys reluctantly set off for the fourth floor toilets.

Remus, Peter, James, and Albert Olong, another seventh year Gryffindor boy, were busy goofing off as they usually did during detention. They boys were having a water fight, and so far they were sopping wet and the bathroom was just as filthy as it was starting out. Odd stains could be found throughout the bathroom, one of them looking ominously like mashed peas and carrots, an absolutely horrible stench was seeping out from the last stall in the row, reminding them strangely of goat and manure. No one had had the courage to peer into that stall yet, they were saving that particular pleasure for the loser of the water fight. The boys had never used this bathroom; its reputation having preceding it. It had not been cleaned in anyone's living memory, and not even Professor Binns could remember it clean, or even remotely sanitary. Although they were having a little bit of unexpected fun, the water fight had not entirely distracted them from the unpleasant odors and ghastly blemishes.

"Do you guys hear something?" James asked, pausing mid-action to cock his heat to one side. He was rewarded with a bucket of soapy water dumped on his head. Pushing his dripping hair out of his eyes, he glared at a smirking Peter. "I'm serious!"

"No you're not!" joked Albert, unaware that that particular joke had worn itself out many, many years ago. The other three boys threw tired looks his way.

"I think…I think there are girls nearby," James continued as though he hadn't heard Albert's cheesy and overused pun.

"They're probably cleaning the fourth floor _girl's_ bathroom," Remus commented reasonably.

"Whatever they're doing," James told the room excitedly, "we cannot let this golden opportunity pass!"

"Um…what?" asked Olong, hopelessly confused as to why girls in the vicinity, also assigned to clean, was in any way an opportunity. This was nothing new: complete befuddlement tended to happen often when he, or any sane person, really, was around the Marauders for an extended period of time. The Marauders themselves were said to be not entirely sane, even when one could get a Marauder on his own.

"We have to conduct an in depth investigation into the convoluted psyche of girls!" James explained excitedly.

"He's going to spy on them," Remus told him, seeing Albert's perplexed look and taking pity on the poor unsuspecting bloke stuck doing detention with the infamous Marauders.

"Aren't you guys going to help me?" James gave the other boys his best puppy-dog eyes."

"That only works with girls, Prongs, and when Padfoot does it, but don't tell him that: it'll go to his head," Remus told James, pushing him through the door. Albert decided not to tell the others that he had been about to give in to the look. They all watched from the doorway as James ninja-rolled towards the open girl's bathroom door.

"He's doomed," Remus whispered to Peter as James hid in the shadows and listened in on the girl's conversation.

"We're getting outa here, you'll cover for us, right Lily?" Jeannette stated more than asked, taking Lily's agreement for granted.

"But…" Lily started to object.

"Thanks," Jeannette said sweetly, "I knew we could count on you!" James started to panic, wondering what Jeannette would do if she came out and found him spying on them, crouched in the shadows by the doorway.

"But…" Lily tried agan.

"Now Lily," Jeannette's voice went cold, "you don't want life to get difficult for you," James' blood began to boil at Jeannette's patronizing threats.

"This is your detention too, Jeannette! Besides, _I_ was the one who wanted to stop the madness, _you_ are the one who stopped me," Lily finally managed to say. Jeannette's eyes narrowed.

"Come on, Lily!" whined Alexis, one of Jeannette's air headed flunkies. She was a dumb girl who was not naturally cruel but easily led by others, especially someone as strong-willed as Jeannette. She didn't have an original thought in her (obviously dyed) blonde little head. Lily secretly thought she had inhaled too much hair spray, killing off brain cells that she couldn't afford to lose, and giving her roughly the I.Q. of a flobberworm. Sometimes people wondered why Jeannette (obviously the Queen Vulture of the Soul-Sucking-Vultures-of-Pure-Evil) surrounded herself with those who were obviously a few beans short of a bag of Bertie-Botts every flavor beans (and not in an endearing way, more of a 'can she possibly get any dumber' sort of way). The truth was blindingly simple: Jeannette loved power, she could more easily rule dumb flunkies who wouldn't question her every demand. Lily was a very smart girl (possibly the only exception in Jeannette's little club), strike one for Lily. Unfortunately she was now growing a backbone, strike two. Jeannette knew she'd have to either trample down Lily's newfound spirit or cut her loose from her little group, accompanied by a few choice hexes, of course.

"Lily," said Jeannette in a sickly sweet warning, "I like you, really I do, but I will ruin you if push comes to shove. We're outa here, if you choose to turn us in we will punish you, I don't tolerate defiance, but if you don't say anything to McGonagall we'll pretend none of this happened." Lily's angry face did not falter, "Well, watch your back then, Evans." Jeannette, Alexis, and Monique, an often underestimated cruel flunkie, strode past their 'friend' of several years, noses in the air and without looking back. Alexis briefly wondered who would do her homework for her now, but it was only a passing thought with no real sway over her mind.

None of them noticed James, lurking in the shadows. They were too eager to get somewhere other than the fourth floor girls bathroom where they were supposed to be serving detention with Lily Evans. It was just as likely that they were going to catch up on their beauty sleep as go torture innocent first years.

James was supremely angry at Jeannette Hall. Not only was she genuinely evil, he was just coming to realize just how much, she had also threatened the love of his life, even if they had never even been on a date or really talked that much, with bodily harm. His Marauder's mind was already thinking through different revenge/pranks for Jeannette. In the meantime, though, he had to go play knight in shining armor for his Lily Flower. That was one job he only minded because it meant she was upset. He walked into the bathroom. To his surprise Lily was not broken down in tears. She was stronger than anyone knew, James suspected. Instead, she was busily scrubbing the floor, a blank expression pasted on her face. Although James had never had to comfort a crying, hysterical girl, at least he knew how to deal with that situation. His parents had brought him to enough movies for him to see the recurring theme: awkward shoulder patting and a hug. This was different, however, and he had no idea what to do. Lily showed no sign of looking up, so James grabbed a spare scrub brush and joined her on the floor.

Lily had known that James Potter, the same boy that dozens of girls including her painfully _ex_ friends swooned over, was standing in the bathroom watching her. She assumed that if she ignored him he would go away. He had probably heard her friends' malicious words and wanted to see her reaction, Lily reasoned to herself, but she wouldn't give him, or her friends, the satisfaction of breaking down in tears. Because of her thought process, she was completely stunned and uncomfortably confused when James Potter, star of the school, started scrubbing the bathroom floor next to her. She looked over at him still on her hands and knees.

"What are you doing, Potter?" Lily asked, barely concealed emotion thick in her voice.

"Scrubbing," James answered her shortly, suddenly nervous around the self-proclaimed love of his life, and alone with her for the first time in living memory.

"Why?" Lily studied him in confusion.

"You need the help," he told her. Lily's face grew angry.

"I don't need anyone's help, I don't need your pity. I don't know what you're playing at, Potter, just go back to your friends." Lily shot out angrily.

"First off," James told her patiently, not meeting her eyes, and still scrubbing the floor determinedly, "I don't pity you, I pity Jeannette Hall and those bottle-blondes after Remus, Peter, and I get through with them," not listening to her splutter of disapproval, James continued, "they deserve everything we can dish out, Lily. Secondly, I'm trying to _assist_ a fellow Gryffindor, even if it is against their wishes."

"You don't have to do that," Lily told him stubbornly.

"Thus the _against their wishes_, Lily," James muttered under his breath. "Look," he reasoned in a steady tone, "I doubt you want to spend all night in here cleaning the bathroom. So I'm going to help you, and we're going to get out of here that much quicker."

"You don't have to do that," Lily repeated, beginning to sound like a broken record. James said nothing, only continued to scrub. This went on for a good five minutes.

Meanwhile, the boys were beginning to worry.

"He's been caught and forced to reveal the sacred Marauder secrets!" Peter worried dramatically."Prongs would never do that," Remus stated, with a hint of poorly suppressed worry in his voice.

"You guys have Marauder secrets?" Albert asked obliviously. The other two boys ignored him completely.

"But there are girls…what if…" Peter trailed off pessimistically.

"If what!" Remus panicked, worried about the biggest Marauder secret: his own.

"His biggest weakness is girls, one girl in particular, in fact," Peter continued. Remus' eyes widened in understanding.

"You don't think it's her…do you?" At Peter's shrug Remus practically flew down the hallway to the girl's bathroom, quickly followed by Peter.

"Potter likes someone?" Albert asked the empty room.

"Are you sure that I can sleep in the spare bed? No one will mind?" Taylor asked Sirius for the umpteenth time. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"If you'd rather sleep in your dormitory with girls who are out to kill you…"

"Watch your head, a little lower, okay, good," Taylor told him quickly, leading him through the portrait hole, "anyway, the boys' dormitory is sounding astoundingly wonderful. Especially as opposed to breaking out my lacy stripper underwear or clown wig." Sirius tripped.

"You h-have l-l-lacy st-stripper underwear?" Taylor ignored his stutters as a defense mechanism for her overactive mouth.

"Do you have anything I can sleep in? Or do I have to brave entrance to my sure to be severely sabotaged and booby-trapped room?" She didn't allow herself to stop and realize that she was asking a boy to wear his clothing while sleeping in the same room. Meanwhile, Sirius was beginning to question his own sanity; allowing a girl to sleep in the same room, without any hanky-panky, what was he thinking? This was different, he reasoned, Gwn (he still didn't know her first name) was a friend. Or, at least someone who saved him from strange situations and who he talked with on occasion.

Taylor led him effortlessly around sofas and arm chairs and up the stairs before he answered. He couldn't help but notice how well she helped him out much better than James ever did.

"Yeah," he told her finally, "my beater's jersey and sweatpants. That's ok, right.""Oh definitely," Taylor informed him nervously, realizing she'd be wearing his clothes to bed, and almost chickening out. As awkward as it was sure to be, it was better than her own dorm at the moment. The old saying, "never go to bed angry" applied well here: make Jeannette angry and she'd find revenge whilst you slept. There was no telling what you would wake up to when this happened. Once, for calling the salad bird-food under her breath (thinking no one would hear) while passing it to Jeannette at dinner, Jeannette turned Taylor purple for a week…and no one noticed. "Um…which room is yours?" Taylor asked, worrying about what she'd find inside. Boys weren't known as especially clean creatures, after all. And she had the ominous feeling that the Marauders weren't the exception, and perhaps they were even worse than the average boy at making toxic messes in their dorm room.

"The one with a 'The Marauder's Awesomely Cool Room of Mega Fun and Pranks, Enter at Your Own Risk' banner on the door. You really can't miss it." Sirius responded, shamefaced. They had been young when they had painted that sign, but fifth years were allowed to make mistakes too, he reasoned.

Sure enough, as she opened the door it was stopped on a enormous pile of dirty laundry and forgotten textbooks, ink bottles, quills, various Quidditch supplies, and things she didn't want to think about ever again. The room's interior did not improve. Although Sirius could not actually see the mess, he knew it was there. He didn't trip over it several times a day, even when he could see, for nothing.

"I'm sorry about the mess," Sirius said, "if I could actually see, I might be scrambling around putting all sorts of stuff away in a pathetic attempt at organization." Taylor grinned, looking around the room with her hastily lit wand.

"No you wouldn't," she told him assuredly.

"Probably not," he grinned, strangely happy that she was able to catch his lie, "but I'd probably be even more embarrassed, and wake up Wormtail or Moony to clean."

"Everyone's asleep," Taylor informed him, apparently unnecessarily.

"I know, their attempts at breaking the sound barrier even in their sleep, with snoring alone, clued me in," Sirius frowned at the racket.

"Didn't you say there's supposed to be an extra bed?" Taylor looked around at all the beds, seeing only one empty, but five beds.

"Yeah, there's two boys dorms for our year and us Marauders get our own. There's a spare bed in the middle."

"No there's not, someone's sleeping there.""Oh, that's weird. Then there should be a spare bed somewhere else.""Are you sure?" She asked, her tone reluctant and unsure of the whole plan."Sure I'm sure," Sirius told her, starting to lose patience, "see who's on the middle bed, then I'll know which bed is free." Taylor walked over, Sirius felt her let go of her ever helpful grip on his arm, and she leaned over the middle bed apprehensively. It was a little weird to be in the boys' dorm leaning over an unknown guy in the middle of the night.

"Um…that might not work," Taylor said slowly.

"Why not?" Sirius demanded.

"Well, the empty bed we're looking for is in the girls' dormitory," Taylor wondered briefly what the heck in a hatbox Lily Evans, good girl extraordinaire and member of the Vultures was doing, besides sleeping, in the boys' dorm.

"What!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Shh!" Taylor shushed him, walking back over the piles of stuff towards him and the door, "I take it Lily Evans doesn't sleep here every night," she added dryly. When Sirius looked about to let out another loud exclamation, she clasped a hand over his mouth. "Shh!" she said once more. Sirius grabbed her wrist and easily removed her hand. "Hey!" she objected.

"It was either that or lick it, I find either works quite well," he smirked devilishly, and she stopped objecting. "So, why is Evans here?"

"Dunno, but I guess that means I have to sleep in the common room tonight," she sighed, "the couch gets quite uncomfortable after a couple of nights, and don't even get me started on the armchairs, table, or floor. I will have to borrow a blanket, however. And a watch with an alarm, don't want to be asleep near first years again…" she shuddered. That sharpie mustache had taken forever to wear off.

"How often have you slept in the common room," Sirius asked curiously, wondering why he'd never seen a sleeping girl down there after one of his many nightly jaunts.

"Enough," she replied shortly, "so, do you have an extra blanket, the fire tends to go out about 3 a.m."

"You're not sleeping in the common room," he told her sternly, making up his mind. She raised an eyebrow that he couldn't see. "I'll sleep on the floor and you can take my bed," he explained more gallantly than anyone alive would guess Sirius Black could be, it surprised Taylor too.

"Have you seen the floor," she asked ironically, "no flat surfaces, you wouldn't last the night.""Wanna bet?" He smirked a devious smirk.

"This is ridiculous!" She smiled, "I'm not going to let you sleep on the floor! Who knows what's down there," she added conspiratorially, "you could crush valuable archeological finds, or a mutated sandwich from your first year could attack you and suck out your brains through your ears, or infect you with some sort of virus that'll turn you into a flesh-eating zombie that'll eat us all, one by one, in the middle of the night, then go on a mad rampage through the castle! No," Taylor added seriously, ignoring Sirius' cute, bemused look, "for all our sakes I can't let you do that."

"And I'm not letting you sleep in the common room. Besides the EVIL Jeannette or one of her slightly less evil but also dangerous minions could find you there." They stood there for a minute or two, unsure of what to do. "You know," Sirius finally said, masking his nervousness with his usual brand of cockiness, "I usually don't use the whole bed, and, before you object, I promise to stay on my own side." Sirius told her, unsure of what he'd do in his sleep, and 99.9% sure she'd refuse. But apparently he'd underestimated the power of sleep deprivation on the morals of a seventeen year old.


	9. Revenge

Lily woke up in a strange bed. It wasn't the first time it had happened, but it was the first time it wasn't at an innocent sleep-over with friends. For a minute she was disorientated: why weren't there girls running around all over the place shrieking about lost mascara brushes and who used the last of who's shampoo? That familiar clamor of cat fights and high-pitched gossip was replaced by the low snores of several guys. Then she remembered the night before:

_If there was one thing that Lily hated above all else it was being helpless. At least when she was under Jeannette's thumb she still had some semblance of control over her situation. Whenever Jeannette wasn't around she had full control of the other minions because she was the smartest one there. The others were easily led, and quite dumb, really. It was good being boss, she wouldn't lie, she could even see how Jeannette had become the evil bitch she was. It wasn't as though Jeannette was pure evil, she just knew what she wanted and went after it, no matter what the cost, and without thought to others…or morals. She should've been in Slytherin, and knew it. Someone had asked her once how she had made it into Gryffindor, but no one would ever make that mistake again. Still, Jeannette was not openly evil, but worked stealthily towards her own goals. And Lily could manipulate those wants and ambitions to meet her own needs, so they nearly always worked towards the same goal. Well, most of the time anyways. But no matter how much control she used to have over her life, the point was it was all gone. And no matter how much she disliked her previous group of friends, it was better the devil you knew…right?_

_Lily had been scrubbing next to the illustrious James Potter for about five minutes. It was weird, because in those five minutes everything she knew about Potter was blown out the window. The James Potter she knew, or thought she knew, would never "_assist_ a fellow Gryffindor," as he so casually put it. She didn't know his motives when he came in to the bathroom, realizing that he had in all likelihood heard her conversation, but she had been almost willing to bet that he had ulterior motives. Then he had picked up a scrub brush. Now she didn't know what to think, didn't know who this boy was. Soon her thoughts were interrupted by two boys bounding into the room. 'And then there were three,' she thought wryly, looking at the two panic-stricken boys, their faces becoming even more upset when they looked at her. Shock appeared, almost choking out their other expressions, when they noticed their leader on his knees, scrubbing the floor._

"_What are you doing!" Peter asked, flabbergasted. But Remus took a second look at Lily, and his face became one of understanding and humor. 'So,' he thought with a knowing smirk, 'Evans has him doing housework already.'_

"_Well boys, we're going to help Lily clean the bathroom," James told his fellow Marauders, somehow still emanating authority despite his current position on the floor holding a scrub brush, "and she's going to sleep in the spare bed tonight.""What spare bed?" Lily cut in suspiciously._

"_What? NO!" Yelled Peter._

"_She cannot penetrate the Marauder's lair," exclaimed Remus._

"_I'm not sleeping in the boy's dormitory!" Lily put in angrily, realizing just where this spare bed was. All three of them glared at an unrepentant, but slightly put out at the upset declarations from two of his friends and his soul-mate (who didn't know she was his soul-mate yet, so she was quickly forgiven. Plus, in James' eyes his Lily flower could do no wrong)._

"_Who's not sleeping in the boy's dorm?" Albert asked innocently, finally making it into the girl's bathroom. The three other boys stiffened at the intrusion. Albert's gaze fell curiously on Lily. 'I wonder…' he thought._

"_Um…nothing, Albert," Remus told him, automatically covering for his fellow Marauders. A perfect Prefect he was not. He had not even seriously attempted to stop any of their shenanigans since getting his badge. Sure he had disapproved, and told them so, but he knew he could have stopped them if he tried. But it all came down to acceptance. Peter had a lot of friends, and a few semi-serious girlfriends, James and Sirius had each other and, until recently, a long string of Slutty-Slag Girls (that's what Remus called them, at least). Remus, no matter how much his friends reassured him of his importance in their gang, in their own special brand of humor: "You're our 'in' with the teachers, Moony, our 'connection' in a seat of power, we need you!" Understandably, it hadn't reassured him._

"_Yeah," said James quickly, trying to cover up the Marauder's attempt to break the rules, "why don't you and Peter go and clean the boys' restroom, Remus and I'll stay and help Lily clean this one."_

"_But…" Lily objected._

"_Where's the other girls who're supposed to be here?" Albert asked, not entirely convinced. Remus saw James sneak a quick look at an irate Lily. Entranced at the previously unheard of interaction, Remus watched as she shot a pleading look at James and shake her head once._

"_Er…" James said, "they had to go to the…er…Hospital Wing. Yeah," James nodded his head innocently, "one of the other girls breathed in some…er…toxic cleaning vapors and got all light-headed and stuff." No one looked very convinced, Lily hit her forehead with one palm in exasperation. But Peter and Albert left to go clean the boys' room, looking quite unhappy with their job, and Albert wondering aloud which cleaning product had toxic fumes. Peter sarcastically suggested they test them out on him to see, and Albert quickly changed the subject to Quidditch._

"_Potter," Lily started indignantly._

"_No," James cut her off, "you are sleeping in our room. There is an extra bed nobody uses and you're less likely to be killed in your sleep. Besides, I promise not to bite, that's Moony and Padfoot's area of expertise," he joked._

"_Who's out to get Lily?" Remus asked with concern, shooting James an annoyed look. Two pairs of eyes turned on him, they had quite forgotten he was there. James' eyes went wide as he turned to Lily. As much as he loved the Marauders, he had never meant to reveal Lily's secret to his friends. It wasn't that he didn't trust the other Marauders, it was Lily didn't trust him, and he meant to prove her wrong. Plus, he hadn't meant to mention Remus's or Sirius's secrets, the consequences of those secrets would be much worse. Azkaban worse. Lily looked livid._

"_That's not the point," she declared, "the point is I'm not sleeping in the boy's dorm, death wishes or no." The stubborn glint in James' eyes said otherwise._

"_If someone's out to get you, you should take the extra bed in our dorm," Remus butted in, trying to be the peacemaker as always. Even as Lily argued against them, she knew she'd give in to James's stubborn insistence and Remus's calm reasoning. And she had, as evidenced by her waking up in the Marauder's spare bed._

Lily stretched and yawned. She looked towards the window she remembered being on her right, but couldn't see it because the curtains were drawn on the last four-poster bed. Suddenly eager to know how early it was, she got out of bed, carefully avoiding anything deposited on the floor from who knows how long ago, and went over to the window. To her great relief it was only dawn. She still had time to sneak out of the dorm without being caught. Luckily it was still really early and most wouldn't be awake yet. Hopefully she'd be able to sneak of her vital possessions out of her room and hide them from Jeannette and her minions before any creative curses found them. Turning, she went to exit the room, but instead let out a loud angry gasp.

Taylor didn't know why she was woken up, she also didn't realize where she was…yet. All she knew was that she was more comfortable than she had been…well, ever. It had been the best rest she'd ever had at Hogwarts, and she didn't know why. It wasn't until she heard a loud gasp that she started to become aware of her surroundings. The arm wrapped around her middle, the one making her feel completely safe, tightened as if becoming aware that she was about to be ripped away. She also noticed that the 'pillow' that her face was tucked securely into was rising up and down rhythmically. Embarrassingly, her legs were comfortably tangled up with something…or someone. Her hands were clutching cotton cloth in front of her that felt, now that she'd become aware of it, as if it had some sort of logo on it. Somehow she knew the logo read: "Bad dogs get biscuits too," with a picture of a big black dog wagging its tail underneath from a memory that was just coming to light in her sleep-fogged brain. All of a sudden she remembered what had occurred last night, the whole 'let's sleep in the same bed, but I promise to keep to my side' idea. Blood rushed to her cheeks, coloring them a deep red as she realized what this meant. 'Sirius and I…slept together,' she thought, forgetting the gasp that had woken her up, and all that it meant, 'he grabbed me while I slept, and it looks like it was pretty mutual, too.' If possible, her face got redder. She opened her eyes and prepared to untangle herself without anyone noticing their rather…overly…_friendly_ position. Her blue-green eyes met the flashing emerald green ones of Lily Evans. Taylor winced.

"You should leave now, Brown," Lily sniffed haughtily with her nose stuck high up in the air, "before I take points from you for _consorting_ with a member of the opposite sex." Taylor, highly embarrassed, and feeling guilty as she always did around Lily Evans, nodded mutely.

"Just wait one minute, Evans," the chest Taylor was leaning on rumbled, "and get off your high-horse while your at it. Need I refresh your memory? You slept in here too." Sirius must have been awake for longer than anyone had realized, because he spoke with a clarity not readily achieved from the newly awoken.

"I did, Black," Lily said, smiling evilly, "but I had my own bed. Unlike this little slut here." Taylor gasped.

"I'm no slut, you…you…Vulture!" Taylor yelled out, tears threatening at the corners of her eyes. Sirius tucked her face into his chest and stroked her hair, feeling the mass of dark brown curls for the first time.

"Whatever you say," Lily continued with deceptive calm, "but I'm not the one who was _with_ a boy last night. And with four other people in the room…tsk, tsk." The noise of the fight woke the other boys up, a task that was usually nearly impossible to achieve, especially on the weekend. Now the other three Marauders were gaping at the spectacle that was Sirius lying in bed with a girl being yelled at by another girl. This sight was not completely unheard of, and if Taylor hadn't been wearing any clothes and Lily had been a disgruntled girlfriend or ex, they wouldn't have thought anything of it, probably assuming they were having a mildly unpleasant flashback. As it was, the situation was strange; Sirius Black never _just_ slept with a girl, and he certainly never held her to his chest and stroked her hair comfortingly. Thus, the stunned, gaping, goldfish-like expressions stuck on the faces of James, Peter, and Remus. Whatever Lily's accusations towards Sirius and Taylor shagging last night, they didn't believe one bit (Marauder Rule 72: Never shag a girl with other Marauder's in the room, hang a scarf on the door like normal people).

"Now Lily," James began.

"I don't want to hear it," she said hysterically, "I just want her out of here. Now." Lily didn't stop to think about how rude it was to order someone out of someone else's room, especially when you were a guest there yourself.

"No," Sirius began angrily, strengthening his grip on Taylor, and glaring a good foot to the right of where Lily's face actually was.

"It's alright," Taylor patted Sirius's arm without realizing it, pulling her face off his chest, "I'll go." When Sirius didn't let go right away she added unconvincingly, "I want to leave before anyone else wakes up anyway."

"Fine," Sirius acquiesced reluctantly, "but bring me down to the Common Room with you, ok?" As they left, Taylor leading him around piles of junk, James and the rest of the boys turned to Lily.

"That was pretty mean of you, Lily flow…er…Lily," James informed her sternly.

"Believe me," Lily told the room sullenly, "that was nothing she didn't deserve."

"What did she ever do to you? I mean, she seems pretty nice to me," Remus added quickly, seeing Lily's expression. Lily snorted.

"I wouldn't trust that, its all a façade, believe me."

"So she's _not_ a nice person?" Lily stiffened and shook her head to the negative.

"She's so untrustworthy a hippogriff would slash her to ribbons on the spot," she added to make her point.

"She's not a good friend then?" Lily turned to James, her expression darkening. He sunk back into his pillows.

"Only the worst, I wouldn't wish her on my worst enemies," Lily walked carefully towards the door. "Hey, you boys don't mind if I keep my trunk in here, and maybe sleep in here a couple nights, until things…simmer down with…"

"No, of course not," James squeaked over his other two friends protests and curiosity, still slightly afraid of the expression that he had seen on Lily's face. When she was gone, or at least when he thought she was gone because the door had been firmly closed, he said to his friends, "guys, we have to get Sirius away from that Brown character." On the other side of the door, Lily straitened up from her crouch, pulling her ear away from the keyhole, smiled and walked away. Finally she would be getting revenge on the girl who had left her for the Vultures. She would destroy Taylor's only friendship just as Taylor had destroyed theirs.

"Padfoot, mate," James said to Sirius as he clumsily led him, with help from the other Marauders, along to the Quidditch pitch, "we need to talk. It's about this Brown person." Sirius stared ahead, a dreamy look in his sightless eyes.

"She's great, isn't she," Sirius said to himself with a small smile dancing on his lips.

"That's just it, mate, I don't think she is," James hesitated, almost stopping himself, almost heeding Remus's disapproving glances, but finally continued, telling himself that he trusted Lily's judgment completely, "she's…I just, uh, don't think you should see her anymore." James hoped that Remus had been right. Hoped that all it took was a little discouragement from him to turn Sirius off this girl, but wasn't so sure it would be enough when he saw Sirius's shoulders stiffen.

"Why?" Good question, thought James.

"We don't think she's be good enough for you," Peter put in eagerly. Under the barrage of vague reasons and insults directed at Taylor, Sirius finally agreed, telling himself that his friends had only his best interests at heart. He resolved to give her the cold shoulder if she were to approach him, tying to ignore the pain in the region of his heart, the strange non-sense cusswords floating through his head, and the thought of waking up with her nestled against him, wearing his beater's jersey.

Somewhere in the castle, a red-headed girl, not evil but embittered, smiled in triumph.

Elsewhere another girl ate breakfast in the kitchens, alone but with the hope of changing that soon, smiling happily at her sausages.

**Author's Note: Please don't hate me: it had to be done! Everyone was just too darn happy. ;) But don't worry, everything will turn out okay with Taylor and Sirius… well hopefully, but in who knows how many chapters. And with Lily and James (as Harry had to have come from somewhere, and without Harry I wouldn't be writing on this delightful site). And maybe Remus needs a girlfriend…what do you think? Oh, and I still have to deal with that prophesy…and Peter…and, well, other stuff I can't tell you about…oh my golly, so much to do!**

**Reviews are my oxygen, please don't let me suffocate! ;)**


	10. Depression

**Disclaimer: Being J.K. Rowling would be overrated anyway, right? I mean who would even want to…Oh, who am I kidding? That would be the most awesome thing ever! Sadly only one person can be that lucky, and she is not I.**

"Hey Black," Taylor said companionably, sitting down on the couch next to him. For some reason his friends had left him all alone when they had seen her come through the Portrait Hole. She hadn't been planning to go over to him, but now that she had the opportunity she wasn't about to question this odd occurrence. Taylor was going to use it to talk to who was swiftly becoming her only friend. "Lily still angry and conspiring to through me to the tigers," she asked in an attempt to draw him out with humor. Still, Sirius Black did not respond. Studying him closely, Taylor put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright?" Concern flowed easily through her voice.

"Jeez, you just can't take a hint, can you? I don't want you talking to me. Go away and leave me alone!" Sirius spat out, although he did feel a sharp, painful twinge in the region of his heart. Still, Taylor did not remove her hand. Knowing that he was being heartless, and only half believing his friend's insults against her, Sirius swatted away her hand. "Leave, Brown, don't you even know when no one wants you around?" This time his words struck home, although he couldn't actually see their effect. Taylor winced and her face went emotionless, then she stood up and walked silently towards the Girls' Dormitory, disappearing up the staircase, fighting back tears. Later, after she smuggled her trunk out of the dorm and hid it in a little known alcove behind a statue of a troupe of pigs wearing tutus and tap shoes, she would discover obscenities written over all her possessions in permanent marker that would take hours of painstaking 'Scourgifys' to remove.

Meanwhile, crouched behind the couch Sirius was sitting on feeling terribly blank and empty, Lily Evans got a foreboding sensation in the pit of her stomach. She wondered briefly whether she had messed up people's lives more than she had ever wanted to in her mad revenge for the hurt little girl she once had been. 'Naw,' she thought reassuringly to herself, 'this couldn't possibly hurt anyone. Sirius won't feel a thing by tomorrow. He'll find another slut to get his jollies with before the week's out. And Taylor…well, she deserves what she gets.' The bad feeling in the pit of her stomach increased. It felt like an ulcer was forming to spite her.

Weeks went by, moving Hogwarts slowly into October. To many, it seemed like any other October; Hagrid could be seen winterizing many of the outdoor trees, even trying to fit mittens onto the Whomping Willow, Fang by his side distracted by the many falling leaves and snapping at them as they fell; Slughorn was busy making pepper-up potions for Madame Pomfrey as his were said to be the best; Even Filch could be seen muttering about the added stress of students soon tracking snow into his clean hallways. On the other hand, McGonagall and Dumbledore could often be seen whispering together conspiratorially. While this had definitely been seen before, that normalcy was offset by the worried looks the normally calm Professors displayed almost constantly. Their worry was one they could not share with others, no matter how many times other teachers asked what was wrong or suggested bringing back 'Karaoke night' to cheer them up. Despite their attempts during the school-wide detention and their rather pitiful half-attempts since (involving a half eaten banana, flobberworms, and a spork), Sirius Black and Taylor Brown were now pointedly ignoring each other. Sirius was still blind, but for all the interaction the two of them had, everything was back to the way it had been.

"Albus," McGonagall started one evening at dinner, "nothing we're dong is working."

"Never fear, my dear Professor," Dumbledore reassured her, "we're bond to stumble onto something soon. All we need is a…breakthrough, if you will."

"With all due respect, Headmaster, Black and this Brown person don't seem very well matched in the first place. Black is a player and she's gone successfully unnoticed for several years. Black goofs off in class and hardly ever has his homework done on time, she never draws attention to herself and turns the same homework in early. He is extremely popular, and half the school doesn't know who she is. They're complete opposites or I'm the Queen of England! I don't know why we thought they'd ever mean diddlysquat to each other!" McGonagall ranted.

"Haven't you been paying any attention to those particular students over the last few weeks, Professor," Dumbledore admonished.

"I don't know what you mean," McGonagall spluttered.

"Try looking at them sometime, maybe you'll notice what I notice, Your Majesty" Dumbledore told her, looking at her closely over his half-moon spectacles a small smile on his lips and just a hint of a sparkle in his eyes. "And, anyway, I have a fool proof plan."

"Not another one," McGonagall muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Dumbledore looked over at her curiously.

"Nothing, Albus, nothing at all."

"Padfoot…Padfoot…earth to Sirius!" James said exasperatedly, pulling a hand through his hair with frustration. If things kept going as they were he wouldn't have any hair left by Christmas. 'What a lovely surprise for my mum,' he thought ruefully. He looked down at his best mate in the world, his brother for all intents and purposes. A twinge of guilt imbedded itself in his gut, grabbed his heart and refused to let go.

For weeks now Sirius had been lacking his usual flair for life. It wasn't something that James had noticed straight away, Sirius had been good at putting up a front. But as the days had gone by Sirius's cover had begun to drop. At first Sirius hadn't wanted to plan the next full moon, even though he always loved the full moon. He also hadn't wanted to test out the "Sirius as a dog won't be blind" theory. Then he stopped eating with his usual gusto at meals. As opposed to three heaping plates of food he only ate two. After a while Sirius had even stopped scrupulously gelling his luscious locks (or so he'd dubbed his hair in second year). Most disturbingly, he had stopped responding (read: hexing and jinxing cruelly) to the Slytherin's taunting (well, for the most part. He still potty-mouthed them sometimes, but without the hatred he usually put behind each insult). But James had ignored that his best bud was acting a little under the weather and assured himself that it was nothing but the blindness finally getting to him, anything but it being his fault. Remus, however, had been hinting in his usual disapproving (but not doing anything to change things) manner that this was, indeed, all James's fault. James refused to believe this, instead deciding to act like nothing was wrong. Even if the unflappable James Potter was actually worried.

"Have you even been listening to anything I say?" James asked when he'd gotten Sirius's attention.

"Yeah, sure," Sirius answered distractedly, "you were talking about Evans, right?"

"Uh-huh, but what about Evans, then," James tested him.

"Her beautiful eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair, so on and so forth, and whether you should ask her out," Sirius stated without really paying attention.

"Fine," James sighed, "I didn't think you were paying attention, but I guess you were."

"Or he just knows your Lily-rant by heart," Remus suggested dryly.

"Lily-rant? I don't rant about Lily! Even if she's the most beautiful and divine creature that God put on this green Earth. Even if she's been sleeping in the bed next to me for the last two weeks." Remus looked from the dreamy-eyed James to the lackluster Sirius.

"So, what do you guys think of those Chudley Canons? I hear they're on a winning streak," Remus tried to distract his two friends from their reveries. James immediately snapped to and discussed the impossibility of the Chudley Canons winning…well anything. The person that Remus was really hoping to perk up was still distinctly un-perky.

"What about you, Sirius?" Remus looked over at Sirius, concerned, "Sirius?"

"What?" Sirius finally turned his head towards his buddies. Remus shared a look with James.

"We were talking about the Chudley Canons, you know, their chances this year?""Oh…poor," Sirius said, "poor as always."

"What has you all distracted then?"

"Nothing," Sirius insisted in what was becoming his usual monotone.

"No, seriously, Sirius," James insisted. Sirius did not even frown at the pun on his name.

"Is it a girl," Remus asked knowingly, but still hoping he was wrong and Sirius's departure from norm was not about a particular girl like he suspected it was.

"Oh, Siri-wiri!" Came a girlish squeal from somewhere behind the couch. "I just _knew_ you'd come around!" She flung herself onto Sirius's lap and began to 'pet' his face. James eyed her like one would watch a rabid dog, edging quickly away. Sirius looked disgusted and was busily trying to remove her from his lap. She clung to him like gum to the bottom of shoes; it was impossible to get rid of her once she attached herself to a…victim.

"Yeah, uh, you guys have fun with that," Remus said, ignoring the pleading looks Sirius was sending to the general vicinity of his friends, but was actually giving an empty armchair. "James and I are…er…going to the library." The armchair was now getting death glares and was in great danger of being hexed into the Great Furniture Store in the Sky by Sirius.

"Oh my god, I'll stay here and take care of Siri-dearie! You can totally, like, trust me and stuff!" Missy insisted, not noticing the eye rolls from Remus and James and the angry frustration of Sirius. Remus and James quickly moved out of Sirius's arm reach and out of the Portrait Hole.

"So, where we going?" James asked as soon as the boys climbed through the Portrait Hole. Remus grabbed his arm and started pulling him along.

"We need to talk.""Our relationship isn't like that, Moony. We're only friends: I definitely don't swing that way," James joked as he tried to free his sleeve from the iron grip that held him captive. "Come on Moony, let go!"

"Stop jerking around like that," Remus hissed as they entered a courtyard, "you're drawing attention to us."

"HELP! A LUNATIC HAS ME CAPTIVE! SAVE ME!" James screamed to the general student populace who were strewn about the courtyard hanging out with friends and generally enjoying the nice (coolish) weather while they still could. After the initial glance towards James, the other students cheerfully continued what they were doing. "YOU'VE ALL CONTRIBUTED TO MY EARLY DEATH!" shrieked James in an unsuccessful effort to save himself from talking with his friend. Remus simply rolled his eyes and continued dragging James to a spot under a tree down by the lake.

"Now," Remus said seriously, "are you going to stay put or am I going to have to hex you?" James eyed Remus's wand warily, sighed, then leaned against the tree with his arms crossed sullenly.

"What did you want to talk about?" James whined.

"Sirius."

"He's fine. We left him with a girl hanging all over him and everything," James insisted.

"But he didn't look happy about it, and that's not like him."

"Seriously, no pun intended, Sirius is fine. He's got a slutty girl to make-out with and that's all he needs."

"I told you this would all come back to bite you in the arse! I told you all that this was a bad idea! But do you listen, of course not. You decide that Sirius and that girl needed to be separated. And for no good reason, either," Remus Lupin ranted.

"Hey, we did that on Lily's good advice!" James jumped in, but Remus ignored him.

"No good reason at all. Did you see them that morning? I mean it. Did you?""Yeah, of course," James said quickly, slightly frightened by Remus's slightly manic expression.

"No. I don't mean did you glance at them and then put it all out of your mind. Did you see them!" Remus demanded. James thought back to all those weeks ago. For the first time he examined 'the crime scene' so to speak. He had woken up to Lily's lovely shrieking (he was smitten with the girl, what could he say?, even her shrieking was lovely). After he got past the fact that the beautiful object of his desire was currently in his bedroom, he looked over to the person she was shrieking at. It was an odd sight to say the least. Sirius was glaring angrily at Lily, and comforting girl with her head tucked protectively in his chest. He had his arms wrapped firmly around her waist and was stroking her hair. Sirius was defending the girl in his bed to Lily, looking more and more angry the more Lily yelled. The girl looked like she was in tears, or barely holding them back. Then Sirius was carefully and caringly led from the room by the small brunette. James repeated the scene in his mind to be entirely sure of the odd images racing about therein. His brow scrunched up in denial, one of his hands wove itself through his hair automatically.

"So what?" He tried denying everything once more. But the images of his best mate looking positively gleeful (beneath the anger directed at Lily, of course), once released, were impossible to dismiss to the back of his mind.

"So what, nothing! Prongs, he was falling in love with her and you ruined it! We all ruined it."

"He gave her up pretty easily to 'be in love with her,' as you say.""But look at what it is doing to him! He's falling apart. Have you seen him recently? Merlin, he's not paying attention to Quidditch, or even pretty girls who are practically straddling him!"

"To be fair, she is the President of his fan club, and you know how he feels about them.""True," Remus considered, "but its been awhile since he's had a girlfriend. It's been longer than before he hit puberty!"

"What about that Ravenclaw I saw him with after lunch the other day?" James insisted.

"She was _walking him to his next class!_" James ran another hand through his hair but refused to admit defeat. To admit defeat was to admit he was wrong, and James Potter was never wrong!

"But I think I saw him chatting her up!" James said hopefully. Remus shot him a death look at this obviously untrue comment.

"He was asking her not to run him into any walls for the fun of it, like you do a lot."

"Still, there must be something there," James claimed, grasping at straws.

"Look, James, that night," they both knew what night he was referring to, "I woke up around midnight, as usual, and couldn't get back to sleep. So I went to go look at the moon," this was an usual occurrence. Remus liked to look at the moon in the week following the full moon, he found the smallness of crescent moons reassuring (it told him that he had weeks yet until his next horror-filled transformation. Conversely, the fullness of the waxing gibbous made him anxious and confrontational). "And when I was going back to bed I happened to notice that Sirius wasn't alone in bed. He was all wrapped around this little curly-haired brunette, not his usual type at all. Even stranger was that they were both fully clothed. I remember he had this little content smile on his face like all was right in his world, like everything finally made sense." Remus said this last bit with a tad bit of jealousy in his voice. James looked like he was about to say something, but Remus continued, "and she, the girl, Brondom or Brown or whatever, she looked just as happy." James swallowed heavily.

"She's not even his type," he tried in a last-ditch attempt.

"Fuck, James, we've been over this!" Remus growled scarily.

"Look, I agree that something's wrong with Sirius, okay? But we don't know anything about this person. Hell, we don't even know her name! For all we know Lily was right and Sirius is better off as far away from her as he can get!"

"But then again, she could be the best thing that'll ever happen to him!"

"Look, I know that you can't get a girl so your trying to live vicariously through Sirius, but…" A hard blow to the jaw cut him off. The boys proceeded to have a fast but furious fist fight. It is a well known fact that boys will be boys and have occasional fights. Luckily for them, they also forgive more easily than girls. The fight finally ended with James sporting a broken jaw (Remus hit really hard near the full moon, and actually, any time you got him really mad.), Remus was now the proud owner of a black eye, and both boys were closer friends than before."Sorry, Moony," James winced in pain from his broken jaw, and clasped Remus on the back with unnecessary force, "I'm just worried about Padfoot."

"That's okay, mate," Remus pat James on the head with equal force, "let's just head on up to the Hospital Wing to get that jaw fixed. Sorry about that, by the way," he grinned wolfishly. They started towards the castle, ignoring the stares of their curious classmates.

"Look, Moony, I've been thinking…OW…about what you were saying. We're going to spy on this person first, though, to make sure she's ok. OW!" James's jaw really needed to be healed. Talking with it was only causing him pain. Still, James's heartfelt but wary words made Remus smile widely, even as his eye swelled shut. They both walked simultaneously towards a shortcut to the Hospital Wing that they knew well. Pulling back the tapestry they both gasped at the bloody, bruised girl leaning against the wall just inside. She looked at them, the panic in her eyes dimming only slightly when she saw who it was.

"Please don't let them in," she said cryptically before passing out.

**Author's Note: Do you know who's behind the tapestry? Oh, is it too obvious, then? Huh. Well, you're just going to have to wait to see what happened, won't you? Oh, and here's a preview for the next chapter while you're waiting:**

"We have a special treat for you today, don't we boys?" She grinned happily, verging very nearly on insanely.

"Yeah," said every single one of her companions with a glint to their eyes that Taylor didn't like. The handsome boy with the artfully gelled black hair and cold grey eyes drew out his wand. Taylor's eyes darted from shadowed face to shadowed face. The only light was spilling from the crack around the door. Time seemed to stop. This illusion was only increased by the particles of dust floating slowly in the slim slices of light. She looked towards the door's silhouette with a great longing for escape, then steeled herself bravely for the pain. She had faced pain before and knew what to expect from them. She could take what they dished out, or so she thought.

**So, what do you think happens? I'd LOVE it if you left a review, even just a short one telling me if you love it, if you hate it, if you're apathetic towards it. Although, I think we all know which type I'd love the most. ****J**


	11. Violence

Taylor hadn't spent years being generally unwanted by the entire population of Hogwarts not to know when she was being given the cold shoulder. And if the cold tone in Sirius's voice hadn't been enough to clue her in there were his words to give another painful slap in the face.

"_Leave, Brown,"_ he had said,_ "don't you even know when no one wants you around?"_

She had her pride, she was in Gryffindor after all, so she had walked away from him without any of her emotions showing on her face and without a single hitch in her step. It had been foolish to trust him. He was Sirius Black, after all, an infamous player that had always toyed with the emotions of every girl he came across, this was quite well known. But Taylor had allowed herself to hope, therein lay her heartbreaking mistake. As she had learned time and time again, hope and trust only led to pain and abandonment. It only gave a person one more weapon in their arsenal to use against you. This betrayal, one by someone she barely knew (or so she told herself), one that shouldn't have hurt her heart this devastatingly, was the straw that broke the camel's back. As she struggled to drag her trunk into an alcove behind a statue of dancing pigs that she hoped to make her home, she vowed that she would never trust again.

But try telling that to her heart that night as she cried herself to sleep. The tears weren't so much for loss of Sirius Black (or so she told herself, although that was definitely part of the reason, she allowed begrudgingly), but more for the loss of her one last change at friendship. For a scarce few minutes that fateful morning she had allowed herself to imagine something more. But she had been cruelly jerked back into reality by Sirius's harsh treatment of her. Although she couldn't understand why he had been so nice that very same morning while defending her to Lily, she understood his words to her later perfectly.

"_Leave, Brown, don't you even know when no one wants you around?"_ The words haunted her as none had ever done so before.

She wouldn't tarnish his reputation with her presence anymore, she decided. Likely, she realized with a gasp that pushed back tears before allowing them to fall with even more alacrity, he had just realized who she was, dug her identity from some hidden recess in his mind, and found her sorely lacking. Lying in the alcove, praying that her hidey-hole would not be found for a long while, she wiped her tears on the blankets she'd swiped from the Girl's Dormitory. She resolved to live life as though she had never met Sirius Black (his name resounded through her mind leaving pain in the vicinity of her heart).She should've known, thought, that not everyone would forget the last few days. It seemed that suddenly everybody and their brother had a vendetta against her.

The Gryffindor girls were extremely angry that she had risen above her 'station' to call Missy Cauldman a bitch even if it had been in a cleverly disguised way. Personally Taylor was surprised they had only written obscenities all over her possessions. If anything she blamed herself for that; she should've gotten her stuff out of the dorm quickly instead of waiting nearly a whole day.

More frightening than the pitiful payback from the Vultures was what the Ravenclaws were surely planning. Although they had already hexed her a few times, Taylor was positive that more was coming her way. Lately the Ravenclaws had been glaring at her more and more menacingly than ever before. When they wanted to be, the Ravenclaws could be more frightening than the Slytherins because of sheer talent at curses and hexes. No, the Ravenclaws were too 'white collar,' as the muggles would say, to gang up on her and harm her physically.

Meanwhile, there were the Slytherins, well, when had they ever gone easy on her? And now they were even more pissed off because all their attempts to pick a fight with Sirius Black had fallen on deaf ears as well as blind eyes. He simply wasn't playing their little game of insults anymore. 'Good for him,' Taylor thought while healing a bruise beginning to blossom colorfully on her side, 'but bad for me.'

As the weeks went by, Taylor was subjected to many hexes and jinxes. One day she turned up in Charms sporting a pair of antlers that would make any hunter worth his buckshot salivate. Another time she was eating innocently at the Gryffindor table (the house elves were getting tired of having her down in the kitchens and had been hinting that it would do her good to associate with her own species) and the nearest salt shaker had started to sprinkle salt onto her head from its' everlasting supply so that it looked like she had horrible dandruff. Still, she consoled herself, even when her hair was covered in suspicious white flakes it looked better than Severus Snape's did on a daily basis.

The worst of it had been when she was walking casually down the hall, occasionally ducking behind statues and suits of armor and looking around to make sure no one was following her, her hands and feet suddenly transformed into flippers and she had the insane urge to go swimming in the black lake. It was only when she had already crawled slowly down to the lake and had jumped in, attracting much unwanted attention in the process, that she realized that she had been transformed into a walrus. She had spent about two days swimming around the lake before the spell had worn off. On the plus side she had made good friends with the Giant Squid, a creature she had previously been quite terrified of. Sadly, he was probably her best friend. Walking back through the castle dripping wet after she had been humanized again was quite chilly as well as embarrassing. All in all not an experience she'd want to repeat…well, ever.

After those two lost days, she'd been laying low. She barely went anywhere other than class and the little alcove she had been living in. As a result she was very hungry and ready for a quick trip to the kitchens. However, because she had been mostly hiding out, the three gangs of students hard put to do her harm were not quenching their vengeful thirsts to do her harm. It was the classic darned if you do darned if you don't scenario. Being seen around the school by those out to get her would cause her to get hexed, but the anger towards her wouldn't be building up until it was ready to explode in a torrent of pain and misery. So, in what she believed to be a fleeting moment of common sense, she waited until most of the students would be outside enjoying the lovely fall weather or in their common rooms catching up on homework due the very next day. Then she set out to pay a visit to the kitchens.

It was when she was walking down one of the moving staircases that she got the first hint of trouble. Red robed figures with their faces obscured by the hood of their cloaks stood on either end of the stairs.

"Terantallegra!" One girl yelled angrily. Taylor lost all control of her legs as they began to dance wildly. Just as she fell down the stairs she heard another voice yell out.

"Furnunculus!" Now she was lying painfully at the bottom of the stairs with her legs moving wildly in midair and she was covered in boils. Several more spells were sent her way. One simply sparked a puss colored yellow on the bricks over her head. But another hit her and caused the boils to pop painfully.

"That's what you get for name-calling and being generally disrespectful to one of _my_ friends, Brown," Jeannette told the bloodied girl coldly. The gang of girls, having gotten their revenge, began to walk away from the stairs while talking about the correct way to paint their nails.

"Can you have French tips done in the fall, or is that a fashion no-no?" A vapid sounding minion voiced her concern as though they hadn't just ganged up on another student.

Wincing, Taylor muttered the counter-curses and healed her boils. Taking inventory, she discovered she was mostly fine. Several bruises along her back from when she fell could be taken care of after she ate. As it was, she was sore…and lightheaded. Once again, she began her trek to the Kitchens. This time she made it as far as the Great Hall. All she saw was a flash of green pulling her into a more or less deserted corridor.

"You think you're oh so special, don't you, mudblood, but you're nothing but the scum of scum," said the voice of a truly heartless girl who went by the name of Bellatrix Black.

"Yeah," came a chorus of male voices. One boy, standing nervously to one side like he was about to bolt, said nothing. He looked younger than the rest, and seemed out of place. Taylor had never seen him in the Slytherin gang that attacked her before. Although she didn't recognize him, he seemed vaguely familiar. His grey eyes stared into panicked greenish-blue ones. He seemed to be on the verge of backing out of the hallway and never looking back. The boy felt sick, but then he reminded himself of what would happen if he backed out. You couldn't back out, ever. It would be either his compliance to mob mentality or his death. The grey eyes grew unfeeling and Taylor looked away. Bellatrix jerked her head up by roughly grabbing a fistful of her hair.

"We have a special treat for you today, don't we boys?" She grinned happily, verging very nearly on insanely.

"Yeah," said every single one of her companions with a glint to their eyes that Taylor didn't like. The handsome boy with the artfully gelled black hair and cold grey eyes drew out his wand. Taylor's eyes darted from shadowed face to shadowed face. The only light was spilling from the crack around the door. Time seemed to stop. This illusion was only increased by the particles of dust floating slowly in the slim slices of light. She looked towards the door's silhouette with a great longing for escape, then steeled herself bravely for the pain. She had faced pain before and knew what to expect from them. She could take what they dished out, or so she thought. Bellatrix, seeing her confidence, let out an amused giggle. Her laugh wouldn't have been out of place at a girl's slumber party at two in the morning. Which was what made it all the more scary, of course.

"Oh no, my itty bitty Gryffindork," her smile grew more pronounced in the half-light, "this will be much worse than our usual gentle approach, let me assure you. But don't worry, we'll be silencing you. No first years will be psychologically damaged by hearing your screams," she giggled again at her own joke, as did her companion thugs. "Silencio!" Bellatrix was positively gleeful.

This was when Taylor knew she desperately needed to get out of there. It was the point when she became scared for her life, despite telling herself that they couldn't possibly kill her in the school. Surely someone would try to save her. When no one came to her rescue, when the Slytherins did not suddenly decide not to torture her, she tried to turn her eyes towards the heavens to pray to the God of-Escaping-the-Clutches-of-Bloodthirsty-Slytherins only to be met with the face of the most pain-loving Slytherin of all. Bellatrix jerked on her hair again just for the pure pleasure of Taylor's wince.

"Are you ready, then Reggie?" She let go of Taylor, pushing her slightly away from her. The lone Gryffindor stood tall in the midst of the bigger Slytherins.

"Bella," said the dark haired boy reluctantly.

"You know what has to be done. You signed up for this, and there's no backing out. It's do or die from this point in, cuz," Bellatrix spat out, her pure anticipation for the afternoon's entertainment showing through. The boy closed his eyes and ducked his head for what seemed like only a moment, and in that moment his face was illuminated in the light from the next room and Taylor was surprised at how very young…and familiar he looked. Just as hope was springing up inside her, he pointed his wand at her and his eyes fixed upon her with pure hatred.

"Crucio," he commanded, but his voice, for all it's softness, was fill with malice. Taylor felt the pain in her bones, it was a thousand times worse than her previous experiences with the Slytherins. Only her pride keept her from curling up into a ball on the ground. As it was, she fell to her knees.

"Good job, cuz," Bellatrix Black said with as much warmth in her voice as was possible for her to have and just as much pride, "you got the gist of it, did as well as can be expected the for first time. Just need a little practice, watch: CRUCIO!"

The world exploded in bright light. Taylor opened her mouth and screamed, but all she heard was the distant chuckles of the boys and the insane giggling of one Bellatrix. She couldn't make a sound because of the 'Silencio' that Bellatrix had placed on her. But it was hard to concentrate on that when knives were being driven slowly, tortuously into every inch of her body. Or when it felt like her fingernails were being torn off and her eyes burned out. Anything would be better than this, she realized with a start. Death or insanity would at least protect you from the pain of it. Then the curse was lifted.

"Let's leave this slime to her thoughts, I think the upstart has been taught her lesson, for now, anyway," Taylor heard a voice positively bursting with joy and mirth say before she passed out entirely. As usual, they took turns kicking her limp body as they left, that much she was awake for.

It was a few hours before Taylor woke up. For a moment all she felt was deep confusion; this certainly wasn't the where she was used to sleeping. Then the pain hit her and she groaned, realizing all that had happened to her, from the stairway confrontation with the Vultures to the torture the Slytherins had put her through. She had only just pulled herself up against the wall and begun to take stock of her numerous injuries when she heard footsteps and conversation coming from just outside the doorway. Immediately her mind imagined a murderous Bellatrix come to finish her off. Even when the door opened to reveal two very surprised looking but familiar boys, she was still convinced that the evil Slytherin was coming for her.

"Please don't let them in," she said before briefly losing consciousness. When she came to, there were two very worried boys kneeling close by watching her with concern.

"She needs to go to the Hospital Wing," Remus told James, failing to hide his worry for the battered young girl he hadn't recognized yet.

"No duh, Moony," James rolled his eyes, "but how do we get her up there without hurting her? We can't just leave her and get a teacher because whoever did this could come back!"

"Hmm…I may have a plan," Remus said thoughtfully but still worriedly.

"Guys," Taylor cut in softly, they both looked over at her with surprise, "I'm not going to the Hospital Wing."

"She must have a concussion," Remus noted with concern. "How…does…your…head…feel," he asked her slowly with great enunciation while trying to check the dilation of her pupils.

"I don't have a concussion, but I'm still not going to the Hospital Wing," she rolled her eyes at Remus's slowly worded question before finding out that rolling her eyes also hurt.

"Of course you're going to the Hospital Wing, don't be stupid," James told her.

"James! You can't call someone with extensive injuries stupid," Remus scolded.

"Yes, Mum," James mocked before turning back to Taylor, "what happened to you, anyway?"

"Nothing! I'm fine!" Taylor defended shrilly.

"Uh-huh, and I'm a hippogriff," James crossed his arms sternly.

"I've always thought you were rather bird-brained," Remus joked.

"I am not!" James shot him the evil eye.

"Are too!" Remus crossed his arms."Are not!" James hands curled into fists.

"Are too!" Remus shook a fist at him.

"Are not!" As the boys argued, Taylor looked from one to the other and began to scoot away. She gasped in pain at the movement. Both boys turned back to her.

"We're going to take you to the Hospital Wing now," Remus told her as though talking to a small child.

"I already told you that I'm not going!" Taylor scowled.

"Look, you need to go to the Hospital Wing. Someone's beaten you up." The boys moved on either side of her and made to lift her up.

"No! Please…I can't go there, I just can't!" Tears began to drip down her face and a sob wracked through her chest, making her wince in pain.

"You're injured," Remus began.

"So I'll heal myself," James snorted in disbelief, but Taylor ignored him and continued, "I just need a nice quiet place to rest and…"

"Obviously she's delusional," Remus put in, crossing his arms.

"What'll you do for us if we provide such a place?" James asked, looking at her speculatively. Remus looked appalled.

"You're not seriously considering…she needs the Hospital Wing!" Remus objected heatedly.

"Anything," Taylor ignored Remus and watched James closely, "just don't bring me to the Hospital Wing."

"We'll bring you up to the boy's dorms," he told her, grinning from ear to ear.

"No one can see me," Taylor warned.

"See! She is obviously delusional: she thinks she's invisible," Remus said victoriously and fist-pumped the air.

"I meant," Taylor corrected exasperatedly, "that you can't let anyone see me. I have too many enemies."

"Done," James agreed immediately, "and in return all you have to do is tell us who did this and why. Oh, and generally anything else we want to know."

"Oh, is that all?" Taylor laughed, then gasped loudly in pain. "Fine, just be careful with me, okay?"

"Hmm…" James studied the situation, "how do you propose we move her, Moony?"

"Leave me out of this!" Remus had his back turned to them, his body language denouncing the arrangements being made.

"Please, Lupin?" Taylor pleaded.

"Fine," Remus kneaded his forehead in displeasure. "James, cloak her."

"But…" James protested. Taylor looked at him curiously.

"Hey, this was your idea," Remus reminded him. Silently James pulled a silvery, fluid-like cloak from his bag and draped it over Taylor. "Moblicorpus." Suddenly she was lifted off the ground, she tried not to gasp out in pain. Slowly she was floated through the door and towards the marble staircase.

"You're lucky its past supper time," James commented.

"Shh!" Remus reprimanded him as they slowly made their way up to the seventh floor.

"Don't worry, Siri-liri-diri, I'll take wonderful care of you!" Missy said from her position on Sirius's lap with her arms slung around his neck.

"Get off me!" Sirius demanded as soon as the portrait hole closed behind his friends. Instead, Missy scooted up closer to him on his lap.

"Come on, Sirius, you don't mean that. Besides, I know you like it," Missy beguiled, batting her eyelashes uselessly, the action was obviously lost on Sirius.

"Get off me or I'll show you how much I _really_ like it by barfing all over you." Missy crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. Suddenly she kissed him. Well, not so much kissed as stick her tongue in his mouth and run her hands through his hair. For a fleeting moment he let her, he was a teenage boy after all, but he found her complete lack of self-control/respect so repulsive that he pushed her off of him roughly. Seriously (he held back a snigger that would not be entirely appropriate at that time), was she so skanky that she'd throw herself at anybody, even people who'd repeatedly told her to go away? Brown certainly wasn't like that; after he told Brown to leave him alone he hadn't 'seen' her since.

"I said to get off me!" He wiped his mouth with his sleeve in disgust. Missy narrowed her eyes.

"What is wrong with you lately," she hissed, "you said you were thinking about a girl, me, obviously. But then, when I innocently try to kiss you…are you trying to play hard to get, Siri-wiri? Because that won't work on me. There's other games we can play…" she added suggestively.

"Maybe I wasn't thinking about you, ever think of that?" Sirius retorted, appalled by her, admittedly impressive, narcissism.

"Who else? Hmmm? HMMMM?" Missy asked coldly, her voice vibrating with disbelief and anger.

"What does that matter?" Sirius was on the defensive.

"Who is she!" She shook Sirius's shoulders. He grabbed her arms and pushed her away again.

"I may be blind, you…slutty little batch of cookies, but I'm still stronger than you. I think you should leave, now," Sirius told her stonily. To his surprise, Missy gasped in sudden realization. He looked towards the sound of her gasp apprehensible. If he knew anything about the kind of girl Missy Cauldman was, it was that she wouldn't take rejection well, and so that gasp couldn't mean anything good.

"It's HER, isn't it? SHE'S the one you've been thinking about," Missy laughed unkindly, "this is rich, just rich!"

"What are you talking about?" Sirius asked defensively. 'Can she read minds now?' Sirius wondered to himself with equal parts amazement and fright, catching on to her line of thought.

"You just called me a _batch of cookies_. Black, there's only one other person who's called ANYONE that EVER in the history of the sane world, and you were right there. She's the one you've been thinking about, isn't she!" Missy spat with outrage while Sirius's face was an expressionless mask. "This is rich, that plain, friendless little witch has captured the heart of the unconquerable Black! What a coincidence," she continued with a cruel, high-pitched laugh, "that we've already punished her tonight. Hmmm…well, maybe the fall _didn't_ kill her, you never know..." with one last evil cackle, she was gone. Sirius sat horrified for a minute. 'Could something be wrong with Brown ?' After he had told her to leave him alone, which had hurt him almost as deeply as it had hurt her, he had begun to refer to her as 'Brown' in order to distance himself. This had varying degrees of success.

He had three options. One: he could stay in the Common Room and wait for his friends to come back and ask them if they knew anything. However, there were two main problems with that. He couldn't actually see when they came back, and they would probably disapprove of his concern.

Two: he could leave the Common Room and try to find his friends or Gw…Brown, he corrected himself. There were problems here too. The most prominent of which was that he was still, annoyingly blind. Strangely Madame Pomfrey's voice popped into his head as he remembered her stern, mothering warning: "Be careful and stay around friends. Don't forget that being blind puts you at a distinct disadvantage. Don't let anyone use that against you," she had said in a strangely rehearsed manner. Leaving the Common Room alone and blind would put him at the mercy of anyone who found him there. Most people wouldn't harm a Marauder, but he was more worried about his enemies, namely the Slytherins. This time he didn't have Gw…Brown to save him. He knew that after his cruel send-off she would be entirely justified if she led him into a Slytherin trap.

His last option made the most sense, logically. If he went up to his dorm he was assured that anyone that came in was a Marauder. There was still the problem of his friends' disapproval, but they would help him if he asked. Such was the power of friendship. But waiting patiently twiddling his thumbs was not Sirius Black's style. He reasoned that staying in Gryffindor Tower would not help his piece of mind one whit. Besides, he was pretty sure he could handle himself 'on the outside.' All this reasoning had taken a bit of time for the boy who was used to simply springing into action along with his best mates, but eventually he made up his mind and set out, feeling his way towards the Portrait Hole. In the end, it was all easier said than done.

**Author's Note: So, what do you think? Tell me in a review!**

**Also, the queue has been really short lately *knocks on wood* so my updates will probably be coming quicker.**


	12. Story Time

**Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling?…HERE!…er…um…hmm…well, I guess not. I only own the plot, Taylor, and Jeannette (although, I'm not sure who'd want her ;) ).**

"Wait," Remus whispered suddenly, flinging an arm in front of James, "do you guys hear something?"

"Yeah, kinda like a…" James trailed off at a loss.

"Elephant stumbling around in the dark?" Taylor finished from her position floating several feet above them covered in the invisibility cloak, her eyes closed firmly in pain. The boys chuckled.

"James, you go ahead and find out what it is," Remus ordered.

"Why me?" James demanded sullenly, Remus glared at him. "Fine, fine, I'll go."

"What if _they're_ still out there?" Taylor whispered to herself in fright. Remus looked towards the sound of her voice curiously.

"Who?" Taylor didn't respond. "You're going to have to tell us eventually, you know. You agreed, after all." Suddenly the noises got closer, a lot closer.

"Look who I found, you guys! Padfoot!" James exclaimed excitedly, leading Sirius towards them.

"Were you wandering around alone?" Remus asked, a stern frown on his face. 'Honestly, of all the stupid things his friends did…'

"Don't be such a Debbie Downer, Moony, I was doing just fine until Peeves found me," Sirius responded flippantly before his voice grew more serious, "besides, it was for a good cause. The Evil Little Vulture you guys left me with (by the way, I _will_ get you back for that) told me her friends did something horrible to…er, someone. We have to find her!" James and Remus exchanged looks.

"Huh, we just happened to find a girl horribly injured today, what a coincidence…" James said obliviously.

"Is she okay? Where is she? Wait until I get my hands on those…" Sirius looked around with his sightless eyes fruitlessly and purely out of habit. James and Remus exchanged confused looks at their friend's vehemence.

'Who was this girl,' they both wondered silently. Neither had realized yet who they'd rescued, although, Remus did have an inkling…

"I'm fine, I just need some rest," Taylor told Sirius, not without effort, and completely stunned by his reaction. For someone who had basically told her that he never wanted to 'see' her again, he sure seemed concerned for her health. It was all very confusing. 'Maybe I'm hallucinating because of the pain…' she considered briefly.

"Gwnie? You're here? Why aren't you in the Hospital Wing?" Sirius's expression was extremely concerned.

"Oh," James said to Taylor, "is your name Gwinn? I didn't know any one named Gwinn went to Hogwarts…"

"Er…no," she told him hesitantly. Sirius looked embarrassed. James and Remus exchanged yet another look. 'Had Padfoot really given a girl a _nickname_ of all things?' They wondered with amazement. 'Who was this girl?' They continued wondering obliviously, missing the obvious. James missed what was right in front of him quite often, one prime example was when he asked if having dementors around was unpleasant. That particular question earned him a sharp look and a loss of points from the particularly strict Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher they had that year. But missing something, especially what should have been obvious, was very unusual for Moony.

"Look, we've got a lot to talk about. Personally I don't think we should do it were everyone can hear us," Remus broke in with his usual dose common sense. The boys all nodded and they set off once more. Luckily they didn't run into any more troublesome 'elephants stumbling around in the dark,' or anything more dangerous. Although, James did manage to run Sirius headlong into a suit of armor. Whether it was on purpose or not, no one was sure.

Strangely, the Common Room was mostly empty, filled only with those students concentrating on their homework, people that the Marauders couldn't really understand. Everyone else was outside enjoying the fading good weather that would eventually lead them into winter. Once the motley crew had reached the boys' room safely, everyone began to talk at once.

"You shouldn't have been wandering around alone," Remus admonished Sirius.

"Missy's friends did this to you?" James asked Taylor in disbelief.

"Are you alright? Why aren't you going to the hospital wing?" Sirius asked Taylor, "James, we should've brought her to the hospital wing! What were you thinking of all people, Moony!"

"Lupin, would you please put me down?" Taylor asked Remus who immediately set to work on putting her softly down on the nearest bed. She immediately whipped out her wand and began to heal her minor injuries. Sirius went and sat by the bed, only stumbling once, over…well they weren't sure what it was. It looked rather a lot like a pineapple. Then again, why would a pineapple be in the boys' dorm?

"If you had your wand, how did you get all beat up?" James asked, completely flabbergasted. "Why didn't you fight them off?"

"It's kind of hard to fight off a whole gang," Taylor replied nonchalantly while moving on to her bruised ribs.

"I find it hard to believe that you couldn't have fought off the Vultures, even if it was their whole gang," Sirius told her, inexplicably angry. James and Remus looked startled at the unexpected compliment, even if it was hidden in anger. Again they wondered who this girl could be to have provoked such a response from Sirius. The very boy who, earlier that day, hadn't even wanted to talk about Quidditch! They blamed their inability to recognize her on the fact that she was completely covered in injuries. Although, Remus was beginning to suspect…

"I never said that it was the Vultures," Taylor dropped a bombshell, not making eye contact. She began to fix her other contusions.

"Who the bloody hell did this to you!" Sirius exploded, jumping up and beginning to pace around. This didn't work very well due to the large amounts of stuff cluttering the floor.

"So it wasn't the Gryffi-Girl-Gang?" James wondered, watching Sirius trip and wave his arms wind-mill style with amusement.

"Not exactly," Taylor hesitated, "not really," she paused again, "well…they certainly didn't help matters."

"What's that supposed to mean? Either it was them or it wasn't!" Sirius exclaimed, tripping again, this time over a cauldron filled with empty Butterbeer bottles. 'Collect twenty and get a free Butterbeer, courtesy of Madame Rosmerta!' read the label's fine print. It was a campaigning technique used the year before to attract people to the newly opened The Three Broomsticks.

"You're really good at healing," Remus commented shrewdly, having been watching her heal her injuries for awhile. He was impressed at her talent, but curious and wary of how she'd gotten so good in the first place.

"Are you okay? Is she okay?" Sirius asked again, his anger deflating. As Remus began to list her many injuries, much to Taylor's embarrassment and protests, Sirius grew pale.

"Look," Taylor interrupted quickly. Her voice was getting steadier, but it was still weak, "I'm going to tell you guys what happened to me today. And I'm going to tell you what you ask, well, because I told you I would. But there are going to be some ground rules."

"Hey, we're supposed to be the ones calling the shots here!" James was annoyed at her attempted coup.

"All I want is the promise that you tell no one. I mean NO one. Not your girlfriends, not your fan club, no family members, and DEFINITELY not the teachers or headmaster. Oh, and I also want food. Can you fetch me something from the kitchens?" She added as her stomach rumbled loudly, easily audible to all the boys.

"Whoa," Remus asked, "when was the last time you ate?"

"Is this the start of the questioning?" Taylor asked quietly, making Remus look quite taken aback.

"Er…is it?" Taylor fixed him with a measuring look.

"Hmm…I guess it was lunch…yesterday," Taylor finally replied, still only looking at Remus. She still hadn't looked directly at Sirius, because, frankly, his whole attitude was confusing her. The boys, not used to missing even one meal, looked astonished.

"Some kind of diet?" James asked apprehensively. If it was, he certainly didn't want to dig himself into a hole with her, as was likely to happen when dealing with girls and their appearances. Somehow he didn't think this was a case of dieting, but what did he know?

"Not exactly," she sighed, "look, I'll tell you everything _after_ you get me something to eat." James nodded impatiently, grabbed his invisibility cloak, opened the door, and stopped.

"Anything in particular, milady?" James asked in a faux medieval accent. Sirius sent a glare in his direction.

"Just tell them I want my usual," she closed her eyes and leaned back on the pillows. Sirius sat down on the other side of the bed and leaned against the headboard. Taylor stiffened when she looked up at him, her eyes full of hurt and pain.

Suddenly Remus was certain of her identity. He also realized that this might be his only chance to right the wrong he and his friends inflicted when they insisted on separating the two. He had never believed that it had been the right thing to do, and now that James had left, and was probably still oblivious…

"I…er, forgot my book downstairs," he told the pair as he dashed from the room, "I'm going to go get it." An awkward silence ensued upon his departure.

"I'm sorry I tried to ditch you," Sirius said, laying down along side her and facing her in a vain effort to observe her expression. He often re-remembered his own blindness at times like these. Although he had somehow adapted to the whole thing, using his friends as guides around the castle in helping him with practical wand work for his school courses and by using dictation quills for his homework, he greatly missed seeing people. Missing his sight wasn't something his personality allowed him to completely adapt to. Sirius was the sort of person who enjoyed jumping into situations and this blindness was totally dragging him down.

"It was nothing, of course, totally understandable," Taylor insisted stiffly, turning away from him.

"What do you mean, understandable?" Sirius hadn't been expecting her answer. He had rather suspected she'd hit him, maybe even multiple times. That had been his usual experience with girls. But, knowing her, it was either that or come up with some sort of crazy scenario that made absolutely no sense to anyone but her. Sirius hoped that this scenario was one that included lacy underwear too.

"You realized who I am, didn't you? You realized that I'm a dork, a geek, someone with absolutely no friends," she told him in a self-deprecating monotone. In all actuality, she was fighting back tears. Taylor wondered why he was even sitting on the bed with her, much less in the same room. 'Maybe he feels guilty that I got beat up…' she thought, 'but why would he? He doesn't even know what happened yet.'

Sirius was stunned by her reaction to say the least: this was not the sort of scenario he had expected. He linked an arm around her waist, and pulled her gently to him. Now they were face to face again.

"No, I really don't remember you from before you found me. You know, after the Slytherins…"

"Don't talk about them," she reprimanded sharply before she could stop herself.

"THEY did this to you? Dammit, I should've known!" Sirius said angrily. "Why? Why did they do this to you?"

"I'll tell you all what happened when the others get back," she sounded unbearably tired.

"You should take a nap, or something," Sirius, who had calmed down somewhat, suggested kindly.

"If it wasn't because you realized who I am," Taylor stubbornly brought up again, ignoring his proposal, "then why?" She needed to know.

"It was stupid," Sirius told her shamefaced. She simply watched him. When she said nothing, Sirius sighed and continued. "My friends didn't think we should associate. They didn't seem to think you'd make a very trustworthy friend."

"Lily," Taylor said sadly.

"What? No. Lily didn't say anything to me after that morning, well, not about you," Sirius frowned.

"No, when we left Lily must've told them…"

"What?" Sirius asked impatiently after she trailed off.

"Well, she hates me, you know," she explained matter-of-factly.

"Why? What'd you ever do?" Sirius was apprehensive; was she an an-murderer like he had wondered upon their very first acquaintance?

"It was second year," Sirius relaxed, "and I sort-of, kinda, maybe, er…left her to the Vultures, so to speak."

"_Those _Vultures? How?" Sirius's question made Taylor sigh again.

"Long story, part of which I'll tell everybody after I've eaten."

"Hem-hem," came a throat clearing from the doorway. Sirius and Taylor sprung apart, Taylor gasped in pain and Sirius glared toward the doorway. "Food's here," James continued, unnerved by the evil stare that had replaced Padfoot's usual grin when looking at him…or even about six inches to his left, which was where he was actually glaring. Sirius really hadn't adapted to the whole blindness thing very well. He had relied on his sight too much before to give it up entirely, James guessed accurately for once.

Taylor eyed the food hungrily and gestured for it to be brought over to her. James and Remus, who had arrived with James, laid it all on the bed around her and Sirius (who hadn't gotten off the bed completely and had only moved farther away from the girl in it). Sirius sniffed the air much like a dog and grinned at his friends; anyone who brought him food was automatically forgiven. Taylor handed him a chicken leg which he immediately tore into. James and Remus exchanged glances for what had to be the millionth time that day. They looked away quickly at the realization. Meanwhile, Taylor was gobbling down everything she saw like she was starving. Which she was, basically.

'Missing three meals, honestly!' James thought to himself. He had difficulty containing his curiosity and wanted to interrogate her immediately, but surprisingly, when you thought about his usual impatience with anything not pertaining to Quidditch practice or Lily Evans, waited until she finally finished the last biscuit.

"Who are you?" James exploded, not angrily, but merely from keeping his questions bottled up for so long. Taylor sighed heavily, knowing what was sure to be coming.

"Taylor Brown," she told him. James's eyes narrowed.

"I haven't exactly heard the greatest things about you, Brown," James said venomously despite his previous decision to give her a chance and ignoring the warning look Remus was sending him.

"Lily told you what I did, didn't she?" James's mouth opened, agog.

"Only that you're not a good friend to have. That you're untrustworthy," Remus told her, curious as to the whole story.

"She has every right to feel like that," Taylor told them.

"What'd you do?" James asked. Taylor laughed.

"That's what Sirius just asked me," she explained to their stunned silence. "Look, that story is part of the larger story of how I ended up in that corridor." They watched her intently, waiting for her to continue. She suddenly realized that this interrogation was the most she'd talked in weeks. Unsurprisingly, this didn't make her feel any better. Briefly she wondered whether she should lie her way out of it. She hadn't exactly had the best experiences with revealing her past. But she knew, deep down, that lying would only bring more trouble upon her. "My mum married a muggle-born, and that's how it all started, I suppose. Her family, pureblood sadists that they are, immediately disowned her."

"Your mum's family disowned her?" Sirius asked, "Mine too." Taylor grabbed his hand, but quickly let it go when she remembered he might not approve of her once he'd heard her entire story.

"Anyway, when I was on the train to Hogwarts I made friends with several students. But when we were sorted they all went to Hufflepuff and I , surprisingly, went to Gryffindor. I needed a Gryffindor ally for all those Gryffindor activities the Hufflepuffs weren't a part of. That's where Lily came in. I abused her badly back then. I left her a lot to spend time with my Hufflepuff pals. One day, though, Lily told me she made new friends. I was mildly happy about this until I discovered who they were. The Vultures. But it wasn't until second year when Lily's new friends made her promise to never talk to me again that I hated them. It was just my luck that this was right before the Hufflepuffs abandoned me.""Why did the Hufflepuffs abandon you?" Remus asked, sensing this was an important part of her story.

"They, the Slytherins that is, found out that Mum was a blood traitor and started attacking me, my friends got in the crossfire one too many times, I guess."

"They just randomly attack you because your mum married a muggle-born? But…they don't attack all half-bloods this much, do they? What's different about you?" James asked angrily.

"I thought Hufflepuffs were supposed to be loyal…" Remus commented thoughtfully.

"They've been attacking you for years?" Sirius asked, livid.

"I never said the attacks were random," Taylor answered the first part of James's question sadly. She conveniently 'forgot' the other part because she didn't want these boys, or anyone really, to know that her mum had once been one of the famous Wellworths. She was rather ashamed that they were related.

"Oh, they attack you after you stand up to them, then?" Remus assumed, reasoning that she was a Gryffindor after all.

"No, after you guys do," she informed them sadly.

"What!" The boys cried out simultaneously in astonishment and confusion.

"Whenever you guys fight the Slytherins or prank them or whatever, they find me. Oh, don't get me wrong," she incorrectly responded to their outraged looks, "I'm glad you guys do it. Someone has to stand up to them." James and Remus sat down heavily. They all looked like she'd killed their puppy, or something equally horrendous. But when she told them this observation they seemed to snap out of their funk.

"This is all my fault," Sirius whispered, looking disgusted at himself.

"Of course it isn't," Taylor reassured him softly, taking his hand in her own.

"If the Slytherins regularly attack you," Remus interrupted, "why haven't the teachers or prefects noticed you walking around all beat up? You weren't exactly in the best shape when we found you."

"Oh, tonight was worse," she shuddered, "much, much, much worse. Just remember that you promised not to go to the teachers, or, or anybody." The boys looked nervous, wondering what they had agreed to. "Tonight they were testing out a new 'recruit,' or something like that. Oh, and this was after the Vultures, the girls who became Lily's friends, attacked me for calling Missy a batch of cookies." James and Remus snorted in amusement at her unusual name-calling. They weren't quite sure what to think of her yet. "Anyway, Bellatrix," Sirius started angrily at the name, "told someone something along the lines of, 'This is what you signed up for. It's do or die from this point in, cuz,'" she imitated Bellatrix's harsh, deep drawl, Sirius stiffened, "and then he crucio-ed me. That wasn't so bad, though, I don't think whoever it was's heart was in it. I mean it hurt, definitely. But it wasn't as bad as…" she trailed off, "Anyway, then Bellatrix basically said, 'That'll do, pig, that'll do,' oh, that's from a muggle move, by the way, she didn't actually say that, obviously. And then she crucio-ed me herself." Taylor shuddered at the memory, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, trying to block out the memory of the pain and her fruitless screaming.

"No," said Sirius stubbornly.

"Padfoot," Remus looked at him cautiously.

"NO!" Sirius screamed desperately.

"What? What's wrong?" Taylor asked stuffily, her eyes tearing up.

"Don't talk to me, you…you liar!"

"Sirius," James warned, "she wasn't,"

"You heard what she said about Regulus! She's obviously a spy or evil-person type thing that was put here to lie to us! I don't believe it! NOT REGULUS!"

"Who's Regulus?" Taylor asked. Sirius looked down at her confusedly. "Is he your cousin too?" Sirius's face relaxed marginally. At least he no longer looked like he was about to strangle Taylor or keep spouting on crazily about her actually being a spy. Taylor wasn't the only one who could come up with crazy scenarios, as it turned out.

"You really don't know?" Sirius asked just a little harshly. Taylor shook her head before realizing the pointlessness of that action.

"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about," she told him extremely seriously.

"My brother. He's my younger brother, and now he's become one of them. Are you sure you didn't hear her wrong?" Taylor's silence answered his question. Sirius looked hopeless and not just a little lost. James and Remus started towards him to comfort him, but Taylor reacted first. She reached up automatically and touched his face gently. A single tear dripped down his cheek before his face grew hard. She withdrew her hand again quickly. "He's one of them now, there's nothing we can do," he told the room, but mostly himself, harshly.

"If it makes you feel better," Taylor told him quietly, "it didn't look like he really wanted to be there." Sirius's face hardened.

"He could've left, couldn't he of. He had a choice. He didn't have to…Merlin's bloody knuckles, he CRUCIO-ED you!" He jumped up again. "I'll get that little snot, that bloody little Slytherin!" Sirius headed towards the door. James and Remus moved to block the door, unfortunately that was unnecessary as Sirius tripped over a pile of unidentifiable objects, knocking loose a sandwich that Taylor almost could've sworn she saw move. "BLOODY EYES!" Sirius yelled angrily. He hit the floor with his fists like an upset child in the midst of a tantrum. Taylor finally tore her gaze away from the, now immobile, sandwich. James and Remus walked over and helped him up.

"Er…" James said awkwardly to Taylor, "I think it's almost time for bed. Uh, do you want be to take you to the Girls' Dorms, or something?"

"Actually," Taylor said, sounding equally awkward…

"Prongs," Sirius reprimanded, sounding mature for what had to be the first time in his life, "she's just told us that the Vultures are out to get her, do you really think she's been sleeping in her dorm?" Sirius crawled over to the bed and took back his old place on it. Remus looked scandalized.

"You mean she's been sleeping in here? But, but…I haven't seen her!"

"Er…" Taylor said.

"No, of course not, don't be a moron!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Then where? This place isn't exactly stuffed full of extra dorms," Remus continued doubtfully.

"ER…actually I've found myself a nice little alcove to live in," she yawned largely, "much better than becoming Rolyat Worb, let me tell you." Her eyes closed heavily and she snuggled under the blankets. Sirius let out a loud barking laugh. Remus eyed them closely.

"And the lacy underwear?" Sirius asked with amusement as he absentmindedly slipped under the blankets and layed his head on the pillow. The bed that Remus had put her down on earlier just happened to be his.

"Still firmly put away," Taylor responded lazily without opening her eyes, "along with my nonexistent dancing skills." Sirius laughed again before closing his eyes too.

Just then, Lily walked in. She took in the scene slowly. James's jaw was still bruised, as was Remus's eye. Then she looked at the bed. Peacefully laying there was Sirius and her arch-nemesis. Even as she took in Brown's battered appearance, anger swelled up in a tidal wave.

"What are YOU doing here?" Lily yelled angrily. Sirius and Taylor looked up sleepily.

"If it isn't the lovely Miss Evans here to be the morality of the boys' dorms. As if she doesn't break the rules every time she comes up here. Not to mention sleeping here every night. I don't know who you think you are, but you need to get over yourself and stop yelling at her!" Sirius told her with a building anger that was impressive even from his spot lying on the bed. He now blamed Lily for unnecessarily separating the two of them. His two best mates looked at Sirius with unconcealed astonishment.

"You…you…you don't know…don't realize what," Lily spluttered, "she deserves everything she gets!" Sirius's look was murderous. Taylor just looked sad and resigned.

"Lily, she's been through more than enough. Especially today, it seems. Whatever she's done to you in the past, and she's just told us her side, believe me, it's time to forgive and forget," James told her sternly but somehow still soothingly, trying to calm down the uncontained bristling anger that was Lily Evans. When she continued to look disbelieving he grabbed her arm and led her from the room.

"She's right, I deserved it," Taylor sounded extremely depressed, "I'll just go back to the dancing pigs now," she said confusingly. Sirius looked amused at her strange comment until she moved to get up.

"No," Sirius told her firmly, pulling her back. She winced slightly in pain.

"Yeah, you probably shouldn't be moved yet," Remus ignored his previous scandal of her sleeping in Sirius's bed. Then he handed her a pair of Sirius's pajamas.

"I'll be fine," Taylor told them stubbornly even while she was changing. No one looked at each other while they all changed into pajamas. For Sirius that was no problem at all, although he still didn't look in either of their direction. But this was another of those times when he desperately wished for his sight back. Both Sirius and Taylor got back in the same bed automatically. Taylor blushed heavily, but Sirius revealed no emotion. Seeing this, Taylor made a move to leave.

"You're staying here, Brown," Sirius told her. Taylor's heart froze at the renewed use of her surname.

"I'm sorry, Sirius," she told him sadly.

"For what?" He was flummoxed.

"Your brother…" Sirius clapped a hand over her mouth.

"I don't want to talk about it," he told her sullenly.

"Mm wnml mmm fll agfls…"

"What did you say," Sirius asked, confused.

Remus watched the exchange with amusement, a smirk curling the corners of his mouth.

"Mm wnml mmm flll agfls…" Sirius removed his hand.

"What was that?"

"Can we be friends again?"

"O' course," Sirius yawned, "but only if you let me get to sleep."

"That goes double for you!" Taylor yawned too. Sirius kissed the top of her head gently without opening his eyes. He muttered something else unintelligibly. Then they both fell asleep on opposite sides of the bed.

Remus watched them. But not in a creepy stalkerish way. More of an 'I can't get a girlfriend myself because I've convinced myself that my furry little problem will cause major problems so I'm going to watch one of my best friends with the girl of his dreams, even though neither of them seem to realize it yet, using all the harmless envy I can muster' sort of way.

As soon as the duo fell asleep they seemed to naturally gravitate towards each other. Sirius's arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer in his sleep. Her hands clutched his shirt as she tucked her face into his chest. His head turned down towards hers.

Remus was quite jealous…and amused.

**Author's Note: I hope you're all happy: I gave you a pleasant chapter ending. Plus, this was the longest chapter yet! :D**

**(Oh, and I think I have another good 20 chapters to go yet, so, there you go.)**

**As always, feedback would make me happy. Tell me what you think.**


	13. A Frown

"Let me go, Potter!" Lily demanded as soon as they reached the common room.

"No," came his simple reply.

"You don't understand, Potter, you…" Lily started angrily.

"No, YOU don't understand, Lily Flower," James forgot to leave out the 'Flower' part in his anger. Lily also looked quite angry, but now that look was joined with confusion and hope. "She's told us what happened, and I know you're angry, and you have some right to be, but it was your fault too. Everything she's been through, things she told us and what she didn't tell us, is partially your fault. Someday you're going to have to take responsibility for your actions and stop blaming everyone else."

Lily was stunned into silence. For as long as she could remember she'd been the 'good girl'. The teachers loved her, she helped out children, loved her parents and sometimes her sister. She never got detention or even lost House points. Lily had always been the nicest Vulture, but now, without them to make her look good in comparison, she was just a slightly vengeful girl who couldn't let go of a seven year grudge with an eleven year old. Mid identity-crisis, she sat down heavily on the nearest couch.

"And you just won't take responsibility for your actions! Bloody Hell! It was on YOUR recommendation that we stop Sirius and Brown from seeing each other," James continued, on a roll. Tears began to trickle down Lily's face.

"I know…" she said softly into her hands.

"AND…wait, what?" James stopped mid-stride and looked over at her in confusion.

"I know that I'm a bad person, I should never have…" Lily sobbed in self-hatred, lifting her head momentarily out of her hands.

"Lily," James sighed in exasperation, "you're not a bad person. You just…well, you were a bit misguided, and, well, influenced by those evil girls you called friends."

"Why'd you ever help me?" Lily asked, still sobbing. James sat down beside her and put an arm around her shaking shoulders. Even though he was angry with her, he still relished in the closeness.

"You're the best girl I know, Lily," he murmured too softly for her to hear, or so he hoped, "Lily, you needed help, so I helped you. Plus," he added when he realized that his words hadn't exactly been comforting, as exemplified by the increase in sobbing, "I knew you weren't like your friends. I know you wouldn't wish what happened to Brown on anybody, if you knew what happened," he stopped, realizing that he couldn't tell anyone, not even Lily, who was currently looking up at him with her pitiful tear streaked face with confusion.

"What happened?"

"Let's just go up to bed," James ignored her question. They both went up to the Boys' Dorm.

Lily woke Taylor up that morning.

"We need to talk," she said stiffly, shaking her awake.

"Wha…" Taylor mumbled sleepily. She felt deliciously warm and safe. Then she remembered everything that had happened the day before and some of that feeling of safety fled.

"Wake up. I want to talk to you," Lily said again. Taylor looked up at her around the great lump that was Sirius. Taylor nodded awkwardly and began the long process that was detaching herself without waking him up. Every time she moved away Sirius seemed to tighten his grip on her. She'd think she was untangled and his arm would wrap around her waist again and anchor her to him. Finally, embarrassingly, Lily had to help. Still, it took awhile before Taylor was able to leave the bed. Sirius was left hugging Taylor's pillow in his sleep. Amazingly he hadn't woken up once throughout the whole process.

As the two girls began to pick their way through the boys' messy room in the dark, Taylor whispered, "What time is it?" The part of the sky that she could see through the window was barely illuminated. So, it was either the middle of the night or very early morning.

"Early, really early," Lily replied tersely. Taylor said no more. She followed Lily into the Common Room where they both sat down by the empty fireplace. Lily had opted for the chair, sitting stiffly, while Taylor had taken the couch and sat cross-legged and bleary-eyed. Both girls were extremely nervous, not to mention uncomfortable and tired.

"Lily," Taylor stopped at Lily's sharp look, "Evans, then. I'm sorry." Lily looked gloating for a minute as the silence stretched. Then she seemed to remember something and the look fled only to be replaced with guilt and curiosity.

"James said something bad happened to you," Lily sighed. At Taylor's angry look she paused and added, "he didn't tell me _what_ happened, only that something did. And he said that I should forgive you because of it."

"It had nothing to do with you, Evans," Taylor tried to reassure her.

"So, something did happen! It wasn't just James trying to make me feel guilty..."

"Evans, it had _nothing_ to do with you. I'd like you to forgive me for abandoning you when we were little because I'm _sorry_," Taylor told her earnestly, and a little annoyed at the continued discussion of what she had inwardly named the-incident-which-shall-not-be-named, the one that had occurred last night. Lily looked guilty despite Taylor's reassurances.

"Look, Brown, I'm sorry too, I guess. I mean, I sort of deserted you too. And you didn't have other friends to fall back on, unlike me. Well, I assume you aren't friends with the Hufflepuffs anymore?"

"That ship has long since sailed," Taylor smiled sadly.

"Ironic, isn't it? That the friends you often abandoned me for then abandoned you," Lily said slightly meanly, then looked cross at herself. 'Nice, Lily, real nice,' she berated herself.

"I hear that the friends you abandoned me for abandoned you too," Taylor quipped back, only slightly hurt.

"We mutually parted," Lily lied to preserve her honor. Taylor was having none of that, despite the guilt she felt at having brought it up.

"So very congenially that you have to sleep in the Boys' Dorm so they don't kill you while you're asleep?"

"Touché," Lily smiled slightly at their repartee.

"Look, the reason we 'broke up,' so to speak, was stupid. So can we be friends again?" Lily frowned slightly at the suggestion. "Mutual acquaintances then?" Taylor tried.

"I guess we can try to be friends," Lily agreed hesitantly, then she smiled, "besides, we'll both need some girl time every once in awhile to get away from the Marauders. Those boys can drive a girl crazy." She blushed inexplicably.

"What makes you think they'll have anything to do with me?" Taylor asked sadly, still somewhat unsure of where she stood with the boys. Lily's smile widened.

"Honey, the way Sirius was wrapped around you this morning, you'll be dating, if you aren't already," Lily looked over at Taylor questioningly, Taylor's eyes were wide and her cheeks were flushed a deep red, "well, then you will be by the end of the week. If not before. And, you'll be married before you're twenty," Lily added teasingly with a smirk. "So, are you going to tell me what happened yesterday? I can help. I am a prefect, you know."

"I don't know about you, but I'm starved," Taylor avoided her questioning gaze, just happy that she (sort-of) had her friend back, "let's go down to the kitchens." Lily finally accepted Taylor's avoidance, for now, and nodded, happy to be having 'girl time' again after so long hanging out with only the Marauders. Who, bless them, weren't the least bit girly. Except Sirius with his hair, but he had become so depressed during the time that she'd been around them that even that had gone downhill. So ready was she to escape continuous boy time that she was willing to overlook Taylor's obvious avoidance, and the hurt feelings she had nursed for years.

"Holy mother of Merlin!" Lily stopped dead in her tracks. Taylor jumped skittishly and whipped out her wand. "Oh, put that thing away," Lily scolded impatiently, not taking her eyes off the notice board, "and look at this!"

_**A HALLOWEEN BALL TO BE HELD AT HOGWARTS!**_

_**A mandatory dance for all students fifth year and above is to be held to celebrate Halloween. For reasons of propriety and meeting new people, all 'couples' will be announced by the head of houses this evening during supper. Requirements of each 'couple' will be more thoroughly explained by the heads of house also this evening during supper.**_

_**(The decision of each 'couple' is final and will not be changed, no matter how much pleading is done. The staff has put much thought into the 'couples' and who will be suited for one another. For this reason, any complaints about 'coupling' will be met with anger and possible hexing or poisoning.)**_

"_**I, for one, am quite looking foreword to this wonderful event and can't wait to see all your smiling faces at the ball!"**_

_**-ALBUS DUMBLEDORE, ORDER OF MERLIN…etc.…etc.**_

"So?" Taylor asked.

"SO? So? A BALL, Brown. There's going to be a ball! And all you can say is 'so?'" Lily scoffed. Seeing Taylor's unimpressed eye roll, she sighed. "I can see you need girl time more than I thought. Good thing we're now friends on a trial basis, huh?"

"Trial basis, pah! So what if there's a ball? There's no way I'm going, probationary friends or not."

"Au contraire!" Lily exclaimed, "I need another girl to go with me, even if it is you. Besides, it's _mandatory_ the sign even says so."

"Oh, don't worry about that. They'll forget to assign me a partner, like always," Taylor said gleefully. Lily looked at her.

"Jeez, you really have been alone all these years, haven't you?" Taylor looked away from the penetrating stare. "Well," Lily continued, grabbing Taylor's arm and dragging her towards the Portrait Hole, "we're going to go eat breakfast and discus who we want as dates to the ball, and other girly stuff you've no doubt forgotten all about. Hmmm…what color gown do you want? I was thinking blue for myself, although that might be a good color on you…we'll just have to go dress shopping next Hogsmeade trip." Lily seemed to have taken to Taylor again very quickly, and Taylor wondered if James didn't tell her more last night than Lily was letting on. Still, she was glad the energetic girl wasn't her enemy anymore.

*** The Day Before ***

"Albus," McGonagall said warily, "are you sure this is the _best_ plan? I mean, to have a ball of all things," she shuddered slightly, "simply to get two students together? Where's the sense in that?"

"For shame, Professor, you know that this prophesy is too important to ignore! I mean, normally I'd say it would be better to leave well enough alone, but the prophesy even says that we have to take action rather than let everything play out for itself, remember?"

"Yes, but this seems to be rather a lot of trouble…"

"It's for the best, believe me," Dumbledore told her solemnly, "it is definitely for the good of the wizarding world if we hold a Halloween Ball at Hogwarts," he chuckled. "Plus, it's fun! I just can't wait to break out my one-of-a-kind hat! The one that makes the wearer 'shake his booty' as long as he's wearing it. And you, my dear, will be the belle of the ball, even if you didn't take up Yoga as I suggested." McGonagall actually blushed.

"No I won't," she smiled shyly, showing a side of her that students never saw, and they were quite happy they didn't to be honest. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled merrily.

"You'll look fabulous! Just don't forget, we need to make sure Black and Brown get together. Otherwise all is for naught."

"What if…well, what if we actually paired them with different people. You know, got the jealously factor working?" McGonagall suggested excitedly. Dumbledore appeared to think this over.

"Hmm…well, while that is an idea, I don't think that we should take the chance of…hmmm…perhaps we're not quite at that stage yet…" Dumbledore rambled elusively.

"Fine," she huffed, "don't listen to me. You never do, anyway." Dumbledore looked frightened.

"My dear, if you want to do that with a few of the other students in your house be my guest. It'll sure make for an entertaining night. We'll just have to cut back on flammable decorations, that's all," Dumbledore compensated.

"Fine, Albus, but I'm not happy about it," she sniffed rather haughtily.

***Boys' Dorm, Morning***

Sirius rolled over in bed, nothing obstructed his movements. He froze, suddenly awake, but unsure why he had a nagging feeling that he was missing something. 'Why am I hugging a pillow?' Like most people, he hated the feeling of only half remembering something important.

Still in the semi-conscious dream world between sleeping and waking, he opened his eyes to further investigate. Light immediately blinded him, so he blinked several times waiting for his eyes to adjust. Consciousness hit him and he sat bolt upright.

"PRONGS!" He yelled, running over to his best mate and shaking him.

"Mmhm flurgen-burgen!…Not my toaster," James muttered, thrashing around slightly. Changing tactics, Sirius ran over to Remus.

"MOONY!" He yelled, shaking Remus this time. Remus sat bolt upright.

"Tornados?" He asked with sleepy alarm.

"MOONY! MOONY!" Remus put his hands over his ears and closed his eyes but Sirius pulled Moony's hands away and continued, "I CAN SEE!"

"What?" Remus asked sharply, his voice colored with disbelief.

"I Can See!" Sirius exclaimed excitedly at a more manageable level, Remus still looked confused. "I mean, I was blind, right? I didn't dream the whole thing, right?" Sirius continued to himself, "I'm not going crazy, am I?"

"You are a bit loopy, mate," James told him, the screaming having apparently woken him up, "I've always said so." Sirius looked panicked at the implications.

"You can see?" Remus asked sternly, "you should go see Madame Pomfrey right now."

"You don't understand. I CAN see: I'm NOT blind. That means I must be cured!" Sirius rejoiced. Remus didn't look as convinced.

"Awesome, mate, now you won't run into so many doors and stuff, completely ruined your face, you know," James told him conversationally. Sirius ran over to the mirror and stared intently at his own reflection.

"All stuff you ran him into, Prongs," Remus reminded him, smiling.

"My face is fine, you git!" Sirius yelled, turning back to James.

"If you say so…" James grinned evilly.

"Git!"

"Ugly Buffoon!"

"Hey," Remus interrupted, "where's Brown?" Sirius stopped mid argument.

"Oh no! What if…Slytherins! I'm going…" Sirius hurried towards the door but Remus flung an arm out in front of him.

"Before you decide to just run off willy-nilly, let's check the Map," Remus suggested. James looked ready to run off 'willy-nilly' too.

"Fine," Sirius said warningly, "but if I find out she's surrounded by Slytherins…"

"You'll know exactly where to find her," Remus put in, rolling his eyes.

"Er…" James interrupted, "does anyone know where the Map is?"

"I thought you had it last!" Remus said.

"No, you had it!" James yelled. They both turned to Sirius.

"Hey, don't look at me, I haven't exactly had a use for it lately, have I," Sirius grinned, happy that he wasn't the one in trouble for once. And also immeasurably happy that he could see again. The three boys thought for a long minute.

"Peter," they all concluded simultaneously before turning towards his bed in perfect unison. Peter, as it turned out, had put the map in his bedside cupboard along with the ever-lasting cheese he always brought from home. After he told them this sleepily, he immediately turned back over and snored his squeal-like snores. Sometimes the other Marauders wondered how he got to be so popular or even was in their own infamous group of friends. But they were sure that they had their reasons, even if they no longer remembered what those reasons were.

"Dumbledore pacing in his study…no," Sirius perused the map hurriedly, "people in the Great Hall eating breakfast…no…people walking down to breakfast…no…people in the common room…no, no, and no…Slytherins sneaking around in the dungeons…definitely not…one lone dot on the seventh floor…yep," said Sirius matter-of-factly, setting out towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Remus sounded highly amused.

"Yeah, we know she's not being attacked by Slytherins, wasn't that the whole point?" James asked, still rather oblivious. Remus now looked even more amused. His friends were definitely high entertainment value at times. Well, at least when they weren't seriously (ignore it, ignore it, ignore it) annoying him.

"Er…" Sirius replied wittily, "it…uh…could be a trap, or trick of the light, someone could've er…cursed the map…or something," he finished lamely.

"You want to see what she looks like, don't you Pads? Sirius has a crush, Sirius has a crush," James sing-songed, finally catching on. "Well, she has…"

"We aren't going to tell you," Remus interrupted, "it really shouldn't matter, you know."

"Is she really that ugly?" Sirius asked, looking concerned. Remus slapped his own forehead in frustration. James opened his mouth again, then closed it.

"She's not ugly," James said unflatteringly, "it's just…well…"

"She's just not your usual type," Remus put in hurriedly.

"What's my usual type?" Sirius cocked his head to one side.

"Er…hmmm, I wonder where Lily went off to?" James evaded, snatching the map from Sirius and beginning to search for Lily.

"Um…" Remus hid behind Peter's bed. Sirius sighed in his martyrdom.

"I'm going to go make sure she's okay. You never know with her." He set off towards the door, then he stopped. "Guys, what if she doesn't really like me now that I'm not…visually disabled?" The other two boys looked at him in disbelief. "No, I'm serious…shut up!…what if she has one of those…um…nurturing complexes, or whatever it is?"

"You're my best mate, but sometimes," James told him, cracking up, "you're totally bonkers." Remus just laughed hysterically.

"Well, what if she's…I don't know…"

"Aww…is Siri-poo nervous?" James mocked.

"NO!" Sirius yelled, surly and crossing his arms.

"YES!" James smirked."NO!""YES!"

"Er…" Remus tried to interject, casting hesitant glances towards the doorway.

"NO!""YES!""NO!""Um…sorry to interrupt, boys," came a girl's timid voice, "but Lily told me I could put my stuff in here? I'd really appreciate it, it'd be a lot safer than with the dancing pigs." She wouldn't make eye contact with anyone.

Sirius recognized her voice and froze. Slowly he turned around to face her. He saw what James meant about not being his usual type. He normally 'dated' girls with long legs, even bigger chests, straight blonde hair, and nothing at all going on up top. His 'usual type,' to stereotype somewhat, was a slutty bimbo. But this girl, he already knew, was smart, shy, and witty. She also rambled in the cutest way. She looked like an average girl, he supposed now that he saw her, but prettier somehow. She was fairly short, but he already knew that, with curly dark brown hair, freckles, and greenish-blue eyes. Despite the fact that a lot of people wouldn't see her as anything more than merely 'cute,' Sirius thought she was damn-near stunning. Although, that it could just be his hormones talking, he tried to reason away the scary feelings this imposed. After all, he hadn't actually seen a girl, any girl at all, for a few weeks.

"Sirius, you can see?" She realized happily. She was rather frightened of what would happen now. She worried that the Marauders wouldn't care about her anymore, despite Lily's reassurances. "What happened?" She asked after a long moment. Sirius had been staring at her for quite some time and she was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, Sirius was having trouble reconciling his feelings toward her. Trying unsuccessfully to push her firmly into the 'only friends without the possibility of anything more…ever' category. It wasn't working in the least, which scared him. He frowned. Taylor's heart broke again.

'He thinks I'm an ugly hobo girl! And he's going to send me away again. And Lily won't want to be my friend anymore. And everyone will go back to ignoring me. And the Slytherins will attack me. Bad stuff will happen, and I actually will have to become Rolyat Worb!' She thought frantically to herself. Seeing no other option, she ran from the room.

"What just happened here?" He asked his friends, recovering from staring at her avidly, and now looking worriedly towards the door she had just run through hurriedly. James and Remus shrugged, clueless. They had no idea what went on in the minds of girls. Sirius frowned again and ran after her, cursing himself for doing whatever it was he did this time, and her for her head start.

**Author's Note: So, what do you think?**


	14. More Meetings

As Taylor ran from the Gryffindor Common Room towards her little alcove behind the dancing pigs, Sirius was being temporarily detained. Very temporarily detained.

"What do you think you're doing, Black?" McGonagall asked him sternly as he sped past her. Sirius, as usual, didn't listen to her at all and kept running at breakneck speed. It was only when he successfully turned a corner without running into a wall or tripping over his own feet that McGonagall realized what was different.

'Holy Crap,' she thought, 'Black can see!' Still, she raced after him angrily, deciding that not even the recovery of his sight permitted him to run through the corridors all haphazard and willy-nilly. Dumbledore had been right, however, to suggest that she take up Yoga or another form of exercise. Being a professor in a school where magic was able to fulfill your almost every whim was not, after all, physically strenuous. Therefore she quickly lost the well-built Quidditch player in the maze that was Hogwarts. She made a quick mental note to give him a detention later before giving up.

Long ago she had learned that taking House points from any of the Marauders made no difference at all. No matter how many she took away, they were still very lackadaisical towards school rules. Plus, it only resulted in her House losing standing, something Professor Slughorn was always very happy to point out. So now she never took points from the Marauders. Instead, every time they broke a rule, no matter how small, she simply gave them a detention for the infraction. They had managed to wrack up an amazing (and alarming) amount of detentions last year alone, but this year she seemed to finally have gotten to them. At least, she hoped desperately that they weren't just distracted planning something incredibly stupid and dangerous. She wasn't as young as she used to be, after all.

Changing course, and at a more reasonable pace, she once again set off to see Dumbledore, panting heavily for most of the way. She now regretted the lack of exercise her job entailed. Maybe she should have become a traveling Tranfiguration lecturer and seen the world like her mother had suggested all those years ago. Oh well, there was no use crying over spilt milk. Besides, she rather liked her job.

"Albus, you'll never guess!" She called out excitedly as she entered his office.

"Er…well, this is rather embarrassing," said Dumbledore from his down-dog position on top of his desk while wearing a pink exercise sweat-suit. McGonagall covered her eyes and backed away from the desk as though it was a mad hippogriff that was foaming at the mouth. "I really should lay off the lemon drops. Now," Dumbledore continued unabashedly, sitting on the edge of his desk now, "what was it you wanted, again?"

"Um…I, er…I'll tell you later," McGonagall shut the door to his office firmly and vowed to always knock before entering from now on. Her new internal mantra became 'I did not just see that. I imagined the entire thing. I did not just see that…' It was one of those things you never mention again, and hope is erased from memory soon. There were some things she simply didn't want to know about her colleagues.

'I should've known that he'd hate me in the end!' Taylor half sobbed, half scolded herself. She was wrapped comfortingly in the large mass of bedding that she had stowed behind the dancing pigs. When she had left the Girls' Dorm she might've stolen…er, borrowed quite a few blankets, sheets, and pillows, leaving only the scratchy, uncomfortable ones for the Vultures she hated so very much.

Now she was busy just trying not to be so depressed over a boy. She kept telling herself that it meant nothing if he didn't like her for superficial reasons. The problem with that was she had thought Sirius was different. She had let herself think that he would actually like her and stick with her. Lily had even managed to make her hope that, maybe, he fancied her. But maybe they had both only imagined it. She dried her eyes on the corner of a blanket, only succeeding in making room for the many more that were falling from her pained eyes.

'I shouldn't've let him get to me like that. Should've guarded my heart like I've done so many times before. I NEVER SHOULD'VE TALKED TO HIM! I NEVER SHOULD'VE LET HIM GET TO ME!' She tried to steal herself to the pain of rejection. Tried desperately to forget the small frown he'd worn while looking at her for the first time. 'It's going to be ok,' she told herself, 'it's going to be ok. I'll just go back to the way it was…before. Everything will be fine. Everything will be the same.'

But if there was one thing she knew in the very bottom of her heart it was that she didn't want everything to be the same as before. 'Before' was totally, completely, and absolutely horrible. 'Before' she had no friends and no life. But just that morning everything had been starting to look up. She had her new/old friend Lily back, even if it was on a probationary basis, the Marauders no longer hated her, and, best of all, she had woken up to Sirius hanging onto her like she was the best thing in the world. That morning had been her own personal fantasy come to life. Then it had all come crashing down with a single, though prolonged, frown.

She tried to suck it up. Tried not to cry like a baby as she hugged the blankets around her for comfort. But nothing worked. And suddenly there was someone else in the alcove. Someone who sat down and pulled her onto his lap, blankets and all. Someone who rocked her back and forth gently like a baby, or something fragile he didn't ever want to break. No one had treated her like that before. Upon realizing this, she burst into a fresh peal of sobs. She was a strong girl, but she had been broken too often. This was her breaking point.

"What's wrong?" Sirius asked, wiping tears away from her face gently with the side of his hand.

"You…" she sobbed, Sirius stiffened, "you _hate_ me!" He relaxed slightly.

"No I don't," Sirius soothed the red-faced, weeping bundle in his arms. Normally when girl's cried around him he couldn't get away fast enough. They usually cried over the silliest things too, like broken nails and jealous friends. For some incomprehensible reason they expected Sirius to comfort them and were surprised when he ran away. Strangely, however, Sirius felt very protective towards this girl. He actually needed to comfort her, to wipe away the tears from her eyes and make her feel alright again. This strange instinct frightened him very much, but even as he realized the instinct was real and frightening the instinct grew stronger. It grew so strong that he was unable to resist it, or even want to.

It was strange, too, although Sirius didn't realize it at the time, that as she'd run away from him, as she'd hated him and sobbed because of his silly mistake, everything around him grew more and more blurred. And he definitely hadn't been crying, either.

"Yes," Taylor told him with a shaking voice, "you do. Now that you can see, you don't want anything to do with me!" Her voice broke. "And everyone will still hate me, and beat me, and you won't even be there to talk to, and Lily will hate me again, and I really will have to become a stripper to escape! And then, one day after I'm done stripping for money and tips for the night, a stranger will proposition me, and of course I'll reject him, but he'll kidnap me on the way to my car, and I'll be one of those lost people you see on TV! Eventually, years from now, some farm boy will find my decomposed body in a field, and you'll see the story in a side note in the Daily Prophet, and you'll think to yourself, 'Didn't I once know a girl named Taylor Brown?', but you won't remember exactly, and neither will anyone else, except the Slytherins, who'll throw an enormous party to celebrate my death." She drew in a long, rasping breath and prepared to start ranting again. Sirius blinked.

"Gwnie…" he started, looking down at her in amusement she did not see.

"No, don't say you're 'sorry, but…' I understand, okay! Who could like me…ever? I'm just this dull, plain, ranting raving girl who you met one day. But…but I deserve something! Yeah! So don't explain to me why you don't like me at all! I don't want to hear your excuses! I may have to become an uncoordinated stripper to pay the bills, but I'm worthy of…something! And don't you ever forget it, Sirius Black!" Although she said this quietly from her place on his lap, her words carried weight as she finally stood up for herself.

"Gwnie," Sirius tried again, "I don't hate you! I don't even know what gave you that idea. And I don't think you need to become a stripper anytime soon, no matter how much I'd like to see that," he added with a devilish smirk. She looked up with him with hope shining in her eyes, even as she smacked his arm for the crude comment.

"Really?" She asked, unsure, "You don't think I'm an ugly…batch of cookies who deserves everything she gets?"

"Definitely not. No one deserves to be…crucio'd," at the memory, his face hardened. "I'm going to make them pay for what they did to you, Gwnie, don't you worry about that!"

"Sirius, don't do anything rash. Please don't 'punish' the Slytherins. They'll only find me and…" she shuddered.

"But, but!" Sirius protested.

"Please?" Taylor insisted softly. His face softened, and he sighed heavily.

"Fine," he said shortly. They were silent, each enjoying the company of the other immensely. Sirius's stomach rumbled loudly.

"I think someone's hungry," Taylor snickered, feeling the rumblings from her spot on his lap. Suddenly aware of their position, Taylor got up. So did Sirius. Neither of them looked at the other.

"So," Sirius finally said, looking around with interest, "nice place you got here."

"It's not much, but it's home," Taylor replied in a grave voice. Then she let out an unladylike snort. "You got to get me out of here! I'm not sure how much longer I can last!" She got down on her knees, clasping her hands together and inching towards him, only half joking.

"It's about time someone gave me the respect I so richly deserve," Sirius joked. "Would you mind doing that again, only this time in front of James and Remus?"

"Not on your life!" Taylor laughed, getting up and smacking him on the arm. "Seriously, though, you have got to get me out of here! I've been sleeping on the floor for weeks now, and let me tell you, it's definitely not the best place to grab some shut eye!"

"Accompany me to breakfast, and we shall see," Sirius granted her in a faux-grand voice.

"I would," she told him, sounding sad, "but breakfast is over." A chuckle at his crestfallen face escaped her pressed lips despite her best efforts.

"Well," Sirius continued, recovering somewhat, "to the kitchens, then!" Without giving her any room to object, he grabbed her arm and dragged her off to the kitchens where they ate and conversed happily together. Funnily enough, now that they were together and everything was good between them again his eyesight wasn't blurry in the least.

Somewhere deep in the castle a meeting was being held. It was not the sort of meeting that imposed warm feelings upon its attendants, or one that called for delicious cupcakes to be shared amongst them. This meeting was in the darkest and dankest of the school's dungeons, where no student would ever normally wander. Many teachers were even afraid to go down there alone, although, this was for an entirely different reason than it merely being dark, damp, and generally very unpleasant. Several students, most but not all of whom were clad in green, were standing in a wide spaced out circle, as though none trusted the others an inch. Only one sat on the ground. He was feeling much too depressed to bother about the message of his inferiority this sent to the others in the room. The majority of the room was actually happy to be there, scared out of their minds, certainly, but also happy and honored. This was a meeting of Hogwart's elite, or so they often told themselves. And Bellatrix Black was in her element.

"Soon," she smiled widely at her comrades. The glee that was clearly evident in her expression made her look somewhat off. The sight made those nearest her squirm. "Soon, we will set out to serve our Dark Lord. A most noble task indeed. He will no doubt be pleased that I have brought so many to serve him," she smiled a wishful, hopeful little smile and gazed towards the heavens…or, in this case, the slimy, oozing green ceiling. "I have but one word of advice to you cowering, sniveling cowards; be faithful and serve my Lord well, or die, by his hand or mine, it doesn't matter: you'll be equally dead."

The dark-clad figures around her squirmed miserably. They weren't use to being on the receiving end of death threats yet. Bellatrix smiled her wide, manic smile once more. She was about to be in the very presence of her Lord, the man she'd do anything for, even, though she shuddered at the very thought, suffer through years of Azkaban. He, at least, knew what he wanted and went for it, unlike many of the sniveling cowards before her now. Even her cousin Regulus seemed upset and frightened to be here, though she was saddened to admit such of her own kin. She'd had high hopes for him, to be perfectly honest. Maybe even as her right hand man, to keep it all in the family. Now she'd have to make do with Lestrange. Frankly, this didn't bother her. She quite liked Lestrange, well, as much as she could like anyone who was not the Dark Lord. And now it almost looked like, though it was blasphemy to even think it, Regulus wanted out. If he did he was sure to be dead within the week. And she'd be the one who'd track him down. She frowned, the look suiting her face more than the happy smile ever could. Maybe she'd have to have a talk with her darling cousin…but in the meantime she hoped at least one of her companions in this recruitment meeting got tortured. And, if she was really lucky, the Dark Lord would even let her torture one or two of them herself! She gazed off into the middle distance, imagining this wonderful scenario come wonderfully true.

Regulus was used to being in the company of dark and dangerous wizards. Growing up at Number 12, Grimmauld Place, he'd had too. He was not, however, used to being one of those dark wizards who'd made his childhood a living hell. During that time, his only had been his slightly-uninfluenced-by-it-all brother Sirius. And he had been okay with that. Back then they'd been almost the very best of friends. Part of him wanted to be just like Sirius: strong, and completely apart from the nutter pureblood fanatics surrounding him. For a short time Regulus wanted to become a blood-traitor too, and renounce his family as Sirius had done so willingly. But Sirius had friends and refuge to turn to. Sirius was in a completely separate House from said nutters, and was currently, if the gossip he'd painstakingly dug out of his other cousin, the barely-hanging-on-to-family-approval Andromeda Black, living off his inheritance from their Uncle Alphard.

As for Andromeda, the prestigious Black Family had not been pleased when she'd been sorted into Ravenclaw, but as they'd pointed out to his brother, 'better that than Gryffindor, or even Hufflepuff.' If his family only knew what Andromeda got up to at school, the people she hung out with or the views she now held, they wouldn't be nearly so tolerant. Anyway, Regulus certainly wasn't so lucky as either one of them. Apparently the Slytherin hat saw 'ambition, and what's more…oh this is interesting, you play a very important part in…well, I'll just let you figure that one out in good time, my boy. I suppose you'd best, for all involved…SLYTHERIN!' Sirius had glared at him and the hat, of course, but Bella and Cissy (who'd still been at Hogwarts at the time) had clapped and welcomed him heartily to Slytherin. And now, years later, he had no way of escaping the claws of Slytherins, whether current or former. As he realized that his hands were basically tied, he stood up and waited with the others, joining their wide circle. Seeing this, his cousin Bella sent him an approving look.

It was late before they actually set off away from the corridor in the dungeons. At no signal that any of the others could see, Bellatrix abruptly told them that it was time to go, that they'd better keep up or get lost and never be found again because she certainly wouldn't look for them. And, she had added with a small smirk that seemed a prerequisite to all Slytherins, she wouldn't fancy running into some of the creatures that lurked down here, and certainly not all alone and in the dark. And, if they annoyed her and the mood struck, wand less. Needless to say, the other students all kept pace with her, hardly even daring to look down the many off shooting corridors, random staircases, and barred cells, for fear of losing her as she wound her way through the dark maze. Although, one of them was certain that he saw a skeleton pacing one of the cells as though just waiting to be released…or someone to replace him in his prison sentence.

None of them dared to ask the question that was on many of their minds, 'Where are we going?' Oh, they knew, of course that meeting a band of Deatheaters and a terrifying man with red eyes and slit-like nostrils was the main point on their agenda, none of them was that stupid. But they wondered how wandering around in the school's oldest dungeons would help in any way shape or form to achieve that goal. Bellatrix seemed to know where she was going, and no one ever questioned Bellatrix. Not even the ever-present Lestrange boy, of whom she seemed the most fond out of all of them.

The smooth, even stone floor soon began to grow mossy and haphazard, and eventually it gave way to dirt. One boy squeaked at the low dirt ceiling, apparently claustrophobic. Bellatrix simply kept walking, without even a hitch in her stride. If anything, she sped up in her eagerness.

None of the boys could pinpoint the exact moment that they were no longer in the small, dark, dirt tunnel but now rather in a tunnel of closely-knit trees. The branches overhead and to each side seemed to be closely interwoven. Although it was still only late afternoon, no light could be seen. Eventually dim light appeared at the end of the long tunnel.

Most seemed to see this as a good sign, and grew more relaxed. But Regulus, with all his experience dealing with darkness, knew that sometimes you were safer in the dark. The light tended to reveal things you'd rather keep securely hidden. The darkness hid you from creatures, or a hideous half-monster Dark Lord, that you'd really rather not face just yet. At the ripe old age of 16, Regulus knew more about life than his companions would perhaps ever know. When he saw the darkness lightening into a grey then into a very light yellow and finally the light at the end of the tunnel, he stiffened both his spine and his resolve. Now there really was no going back, although at the moment he wished for nothing more than to run back down the hellish tunnel and face the maze that may or may not be filled with horrible monsters. He blocked out all thoughts against the Dark Lord and his plans for his world, as he often had to do when at home or in the Slytherin Common Room.

Sitting in a chair that had likely graced the room of some large and ornate manner, judging by its own elaborate styling, was the man that had already managed to invoke fear into most of the brave men in the world. He was not alone in the clearing, that would be paramount to stupidity, and if Voldemort was anything it was not stupid. In fact, many of his enemies had described him as a brilliant man, although that had been long before he had revealed his true intentions and even before he started some of his, shall we say, shadier dealings.

Those loyal subjects who had already proven themselves to him stood silent guardians. They were frightening pillars that formed a perfect circle with Voldemort as the center. Each was much like the other. A few were taller, a few were shorter, some were stout and some were lean, but all wore the same Deatheater robes and masks that marked them as followers of an evil Dark Lord bent on destruction and death. None could be distinguished as an individual: all stood in very much the same position, with their right hand pulling back the sleeve of their left, revealing the dark mark that branded each and every one of them. The snake tongue of the skull seemed to thrash and writhe, their beedy little eyes watching the new recruits as though they were alive. It seemed to Regulus that they were measuring each recruit to decide who would die and who would thrive. As the wayward students of Hogwarts and also Voldemort's new minions entered the clearing in the fading light, Voldemort twirled his yew wand around his long fingers and watched them unnervingly with his red eyes.

Bellatrix quickly walked in front of Voldemort and, at a respectful distance, threw herself down to the ground in a show of complete subservience. The students she had brought with her quickly followed suit. They had never seen Bellatrix show respect and undying loyalty to anyone before. To many of them she was their leader. But somehow it didn't seem out of place that she was bowing down to this impressive and terrifying man-snake.

"You may all rise," said Voldemort in a pleased sort of tone, "tell me, my useful Miss Black, what have you brought me tonight?"

"My Lord," Bellatrix told him happily and respectfully, "these students approached me, told me that they were loyal to the cause, they will do whatever you want, if it pleases you, Master." She clasped her hand together behind her back and bowed her head in deference to her master. Voldemort surveyed the group of students who were being presented to him.

"And if these volunteers are not as faithful as they first appear?" Voldemort hissed. "If they unwisely choose to reveal our secrets to the meddling fool Dumbledore or someone else at his crock of a school?""I have tested them, of course, my Lord," Bellatrix told him hesitantly and demurely.

"Crucio," he said lightly. Bellatrix flinched slightly and also, contradictorily, half smiled. But the screaming that soon erupted in an unending wave came from behind her. The boy in blue fell to the ground, writhing in pain. She watched him curiously and with a sick sort of longing. As soon as the curse was lifted, the boy rose to his feet once more, his eyes wider than they had been, but not about to run for his life either. "It seems you have done well for me, Miss Black, but do not do anything potentially dangerous like this again, or I will not be nearly so accepting."

"Yes, my Lord. Of course, my Lord," Bellatrix agreed, outwardly somber but extremely pleased with herself despite the reprimand.

"But we are not here tonight to discuss the new recruits," he told the circle at large. "What do you miserly beggars know about a prophesy? More particularly, a prophesy outlining my downfall?" The outside circle showed no emotion, no doubt they had already been informed about this little hitch, but the young students inside the circle gasped. Bellatrix looked at her Master in horror and disbelief. Regulus, meanwhile, neither showed emotion or let it permeate his thoughts and internal mind. Voldemort twirled his wand menacingly.

**Author's Note: So, tell me what you think? Voldemort evil enough? Bellatrix too evil? Regulus not committed enough to the cause? Taylor and Sirius too sappy?**

**Personally I like it, but that's just because it's mine. I want to know what an impartial judge (that being you, the reader) has to say. So, without further ado (insert large flourish and grin here) to the review box!**

**Reader, Review Box. Review Box, Reader. There, now you're friends. Talk to each other. ;)**


	15. Room of Requirement

The girls were now both living in the Boys' Dormitories. After supper Taylor had led the Marauders the little alcove in which she had been living and the Marauders had grudgingly agreed to move Taylor's things. She had smiled happily at them, thanked them for the millionth time and left to do homework with Lily. Sirius had smiled at how oblivious she was to their reluctance. While James simply left his friend in a daze to study the packed trunk at the foot of the statue.

"Sure you don't want to take a little look-see?" James asked Sirius once she'd gone, gesturing towards the truck. Sirius looked a little tempted. "Might find a diary or something," James added in an enticing voice.

"Prongs! That would be really rude," Remus scolded half-heartedly. He too wanted a look into the mysterious mind of girls. Any little clue to what girls were actually thinking would be worth it.

"It could be a continuation of the investigation into the convoluted psyche of girls!" James justified, looking longingly towards the trunk. "The one that was interrupted by my wish to pound certain girls into a fine powder!" James looked angry again at the very mention of Lily's ex-friends, remembering that they had yet to seek revenge.

"The one that, much like this, ended in moving a girl into our dorm?" Remus sighed heavily, wondering how their dorm room had become the refuge for lost girls. James simply grinned in acknowledgment and moved towards the latch on the trunk.

"Bloody hell," Peter unknowingly interrupted from his position standing over Taylor's makeshift bed, "did you guys see all this bedding?"

"Oh, you're just complaining because she told you to fold it all and didn't do it herself before she left to do that Herbology essay with Lily," Sirius rolled his eyes at Peter.

"Well, did you _see_ all this bloody bedding? I swear its enough to sleep the whole castle!" Peter loudly complained, causing all the boys to glance nervously towards the corridor, hoping that no one had heard them.

"Oh, for Pete's sake!" Remus said, tearing his eyes away from the trunk and walking over to Peter. The other boy's chuckled at the pun. Although, Sirius did look rather sympathetic. Remus stared down at the bedding. "That is an awful lot…"

"Exactly!" Peter exclaimed in validation.

The boys finally remembered that they _were_ allowed to use magic and all the bedding was folded in a flash, albeit a little haphazardly. That left them staring at the rather large stack, wondering what they should do with it. Peter was all for leaving it in the alcove and never looking back. This idea was squashed when they wondered whether it could be tracked back to them and become yet another reason to unfairly stick them in detention. After all, living in the corridors tended to be frowned upon. Sirius, on the other hand, wanted to just hand it over to the house elves, but Remus vetoed the idea by saying the poor elves were overworked as it was. James, surprisingly, was the one who came up with the best plan of action. While he was usually great at planning pranks and full moon agendas, he wasn't the most reliable when it came to the more commonsense plans. Which was why it was strange, and therefore consequential, that he remembered the Room of Requirement at that very moment. Even Remus couldn't find fault, and the other Marauders quickly agreed that it was a pretty great plan, and even better, in Peter's opinion, because The Room was only a couple of corridors down. Peter was not very fond of exercise in any way shape or form, which was why he wasn't on the Quidditch team even though he would have made a good chaser. But it was also why it was strange that he wasn't plump yet, although the other boys teased him that he'd have a nice round pot belly in his middle age.

The Marauders were quite familiar with the Room of Requirement. Actually they were quite familiar with many of Hogwart's secrets. They had found out this particular secret one night in third year when they were walking back to the Gryffindor Common Room from one of their nightly wanderings. Just when they had thought they were home free they had heard Peeves singing his usual little ditty in a nasty sing-song voice:

_Ickle ickle student wudents,_

_Sleepy sleepy, stay in bed,_

_Or Peeves will find you,_

_Yes, he'll find you,_

_And Filchie'll hang you,_

_Yes, he'll hang you,_

_From your fingernails!_

This went on for several more pain filled stanzas involving the Bloody Baron, the Giant Squid, and some sort of enormous snake that could kill with a single glance. But by that particular verse the Marauders were safely hidden away in a broom closet they had never noticed before and didn't hear the part about a secret chamber under the school. Thus was born the long and drama-filled relationship that they had with the Room of Requirement, or the RoR, as they sometimes referred to it when code was called for.

However, this was the first time they'd ever used it as simple storage. Usually they used it for much more mischievous purposes, ones that tended to become Marauder legends. Because they had never used The Room as storage, they were quite simply astonished when they opened the door to see the city of mounded miscellaneous.

There was a whole 'block' devoted to chairs. There were chairs that looked so ornate and fragile with their delicate inner workings that it didn't look as though they'd hold any weight. Another chair was enormous and solid as though it had been carved out of a boulder and was large enough for three of the boys to sit on side by side without touching. Yet another chair could fit in the palm of their hands, and what sort of magical creature it had been made for they could only guess. And that was only the chairs, some of the more uninteresting and everyday of the room's possessions.

Yet another pile was devoted entirely to beds. Small beds, large beds, metal beds, bed frames without mattresses, mattresses without bed frames, an enormous bed that looked like it had once belonged to a giant or half-giant. Yet another of the beds was a four poster that looked a lot like an older version of their own. After getting Remus's nod of approval, Sirius shrunk it and put it in his pocket. As much as he didn't like the thought, Taylor couldn't sleep in his bed every night, even to him it was rather scandalous.

The miscellaneous was simply extraordinary. There was a piano that was playing itself. The keys were pushed down as the mournful song went along and the bench had been pulled out at the proper distance for a pianist. But none of the boys were brave enough to reach out and see if anyone was really sitting there in the room with them, playing piano for all eternity. There was also a large assortment of sneakoscopes. When Peter picked a small one up it began to wail and spin frantically, causing the other boys to dismiss it as broken and Peter to put it down quickly and glance around in poorly suppressed fear.

There was a pile of hats that looked to be varying ages, top hats, bowler hats, fancy ladies' hats, bonnets, joke hats with arrows sticking out both ends, and one hat even had a whole stuffed vulture perched on the top. Sirius wanted to try on a few of the more strange hats, but Remus told him it was dangerous: who knew who'd put them in here, they could be cursed for all they knew. And Sirius, for once in his life, listened.

Another section was devoted entirely to mirrors. Wall mirrors, pocket mirrors, broken mirrors, a mirror with an ax sticking out and a red substance all over the glass, and a mirror with shadowy figures coming in and out of focus. One mirror, a large and ornate standing mirror, stood a little apart from the others with a chair standing in front of it as if someone had been simply staring into it for hours on end. But there was only unreadable gibberish written along the top, nothing that could help them discover what was so special about it. James was walking towards it when Peter reminded them of why they were there.

"Come on, you guys, let's just set it down and get out of here," he whined, still shaken from the sneakoscope incident.

"What if we want to find it again?" James asked as Sirius began to set the pile down at random. Sirius thought for a moment. Then he grabbed a statue of a goblin and plonked it down beside the bedding. Remus studied it for a moment.

"Still not distinctive enough," he said and added a long dusty blonde wig. Peter looked around for a minute and finally pulled a dark green cloak with a bloodstained corner around the goblin's shoulders. Wanting in on the fun, James took a strange looking and tarnished tiara from a nearby pile and perched it at a jaunty angle on top of the blonde wig.

"Now we just have to look for a cross-dressing goblin if we ever want to find that old stack of bedding ever again," the boys all smiled at the job well done and went to leave the room. But Remus, now standing transfixed with a half dozen paces left between him and the door, was staring in horror out of one of the few tall, thin windows in the room.

"Come on, Moony, we have to get going. Its almost past curfew as it is. And while that hardly matters, the girls'll skin us alive. If we're going to stay out now, we have to wait for them to go to sleep. Or else, spike their evening pumpkin juice with a sleeping potion," James smiled at his joke. Moony silently pointed out the window towards the sky, but didn't otherwise move.

"Yes Moony, that is the moon," Sirius patronized as only a good friend can, and patted him on the head, ruffling his hair.

"It's almost full," Remus said in rapt horror, "I almost forgot that tomorrow is the…"

"It's not like we haven't been through the full moon before," Peter commented with annoyed confusion.

"But the girls," Remus stammered, "they don't know, they can't know, they'd hate me. And now,"

"Now they're living in our dorm," James finished with the beginnings of concern etched in his voice.

"Well, like Prongs said," Sirius put in, "we just have to sneak out once they're asleep, or spike their pumpkin juice with sleeping potion," he snorted at the stupidity of his latter suggestion as compared to the simplicity of the former.

"We won't have to give them sleeping potion," James laughed too, "we'll just sneak out after they fall asleep."

"No," Remus had finally snapped out of his horrified funk, "we can't risk them waking up to an empty dorm and asking all kinds of questions about it later. Or, even worse, following us. We really will have to dose them with sleeping potion."

"They're nice girls, Moony, I don't think they'll mind that you're a…" Sirius told him.

"I can't take that risk!" Remus interrupted, "What if they do mind? Then they tell the whole school? What then? It's not like enough people don't already know," he stared at Sirius meaningfully.

"This is different. You know I didn't mean for that to happen," Sirius looked downcast for once. Feeling extremely guilty about the whole 'Snape Incident,' he dropped the entire 'telling the girls about Moony's 'furry little problem'' subject.

Making a group huddle like in muggle football, although they wouldn't have understood the reference, they began to do what Marauders did best: plot. First of all they had to get their hands on some sleeping potion. Second, they had to slip it to the girls without their knowledge. Third, well, actually that was pretty much it. And they had to do it all before sundown the next day.

Amazingly, they actually succeeded in drugging the girls. Their plan, which involved pecans, buttermilk, a drunken house elf, and the password to the Slytherin Common Room, actually worked. Which amazed even them. Unfortunately the methods they used doesn't bear repeating, or even mentioning. Not even they, who usually delighted in reliving past successes, ever wanted it brought up again. No, none of them ever wanted to mention the incident to anyone, even each other or in the relative safety of their own minds, ever again. Suffice it to say that they would actually shudder in deepest disgust whenever they thought of what would later be dubbed 'The Horrible Incident That Doesn't Bear Mentioning Ever Again.' It was rather emotionally and mentally scarring for them all.

An arm snaked out from an empty classroom and grabbed a handsome young boy's arm, pulling him into the room. Panicking at the ambush, the boy shoved his hand into his robes and attempted to pull out his wand.

"That's no way to greet your own brother," the older boy barked, grabbing the other's hand and stopping its search.

"So what? You're the one who kidnapped me," the one dressed in green snapped, "what do you want, Traitor?"

"I see you've been listening to our cousin, Brother. I've also been hearing some very bad things about you," the equally handsome boy wearing red declared darkly. The slightly shorter boy flushed a deep red.

"I don't know what you're talking about," the boy fingered his green sleeves nervously.

"Oh, I think you do, Bro, I really think you do," the older boy growled, his lip forming a dog-like snarl.

"I don't know…" he stammered, still fingering his green robes and not meeting his brother's eyes even for a short moment.

"Don't lie to me," the taller brother sneered, "you know you could never lie to me."

The younger boy said nothing, only watching his feet guiltily. He was waiting for the lecture about how he was spending too much time with his cousin, how he was becoming just like the dark people they'd both abhorred while growing up. The same people they'd both sworn to hate for forever and a day. Of course, that had been when they were only eight or so and knew nothing about how the world really worked. At that time they thought they could both escape the evil environment where they'd been raised.

But Regulus was good and trapped now and he knew it. And Sirius, the brother he'd always envied and admired, was now under scrutiny because of that stupid, damnable prophesy. Luckily for him the Dark Lord wasn't yet worried about Sirius's part in his downfall. He was more worried about finding out who the girl was and keeping them both apart. Voldemort was smart, he knew it would be easier to stop "childish infatuation" than kill someone right under Dumbledore's nose. But if they found each other it would be just like those fools to hang on until death do they part. And if Voldemort had any part in the whole affair the death would be sooner rather than later. Yes, if they found each other, if Voldemort even heard a single, small inkling that Sirius had become, well, serious about a girl, then he would kill them both without hesitation. But until the two found each other and inevitably got together, he had more important things to do. Like try to take over the world, for instance. That sort of thing doesn't just happen overnight, you know, it took planning, strategy, and brute force. Luckily for Sirius, as of now, as Regulus had been relieved to note, their wasn't a single girl, unseen or otherwise, that Sirius had been seen with. Actually he'd seemed rather depressed lately. Regulus hoped in vain that Sirius was contemplating returning to the family…and what was quickly becoming the family business.

"I want you to leave her alone, I want _all_ of you to leave her alone, or so help me…" Sirius threatened angrily, his hands clenching and unclenching involuntarily at his sides.

"Who?" Regulus asked, panicked. He really didn't want to be responsible for the death of his brother, but if it were between him and Sirius…

"Who? Who? Only the girl you 'crucio-ed,' that's who!"

"Why do you care so much?" Regulus asked, hopeful that his brother was only concerned because of the principle of the thing, not because he cared about her, a girl who had never before reported their misdoings.

"You CRUCIO-ED someone, Regulus! That's an unforgivable, you moron! You could go to Azkaban for life! Besides, what'd she ever do to you? Nothing, she didn't deserve to be tortured, no one does! Especially not her. If you ever go near her again, I swear on those house-elf heads on the hallway that I'll…" Sirius brought up the brother's swear they'd always used when they were young, and friends.

"So this girl matters to you, then," Regulus held his breath.

"She's the best girl ev…wait, why do you even care?" Sirius looked at his younger brother strangely, "She's a friend, I don't want to see you hurting her, or anyone for that matter," Sirius's face softened, "You could still get out, Reggie. You don't have to follow this madness. I could help you,"

"No one can help me, I have to…you don't understand," he answered softly, still not meeting his brother's eyes and at that very moment planning how best to tell the Dark Lord without getting killed as the bearer of bad news. He was already mourning the loss of his brother. Although, deep inside him an inkling of revolt had stirred in him.

"I guess I don't," Sirius whispered as the brothers parted company.

**Author's Note: Tell me what you think. Like it, hate it, indifferent?**


	16. Shopping

**Disclaimer: If I were JK, do you think I'd be writing this right now? Well, maybe…but I'm not her and I'm still writing this, understand? Good, because I just confused myself…**

I have never been stupid, despite the rumors going around the Ravenclaw gossip mill that my proficiency at magic is simply ridiculous luck. So I know that I was drugged. See, I know that I am normally a very heavy sleeper, but that night had been ridiculous. It was a couple of nights after I had moved into the boys' dorm, the night of the full moon as a matter of fact. Anyway, that night I had actually conked out in the middle of the Common Room, and if that weren't enough, I had fallen over, literally fallen over onto Sirius's shoulder mid-sentence. Being otherwise occupied with such matters as fighting, and failing, to stay awake, it wasn't until morning that I realized what must have happened. But all I remember is strong arms carrying me up the stairs and tucking me into the bed. Who even knows where he'd gotten me the bed, he certainly wasn't telling. Anyway, then I conked out completely until about noon the next day. I wouldn't have minded sleeping in, really I wouldn't have, except that it was a school day and I missed a crucial Double Transfiguration, and a History of Magic lesson. As had Lily. Even though we are probably some of the better students in the school, its not good to miss classes during NEWT year. So no, I'm not stupid, I know the effects of slight overdosing on sleeping potion when I see them, even if I have only ever read about them. And that's what happened to Lily and I.

As previously asserted, I keep track of the moon's cycles because I had figured out long ago through…people watching that Remus Lupin is a werewolf. It had been a full moon that night, and I had put two and two together rather quickly. The whole thing was rather easy. Let's see…hmm…who sleeps in our dorm and wouldn't want us to catch him sneaking out during the full moon…hmmm. I guess it is understandable that Remus doesn't want his secret to come out, really it is. But I am much less accepting of his, and the other Marauders (because I just know they were in on this too) drugging us with sleeping potion. Lily, although she still doesn't know why she had slept in so late, had been nearly unbearable when she discovered we'd missed class. She had blamed the Marauders for not waking us up, and hadn't talked to them for nearly a day. I had also been cross with them, although I was mad at them for the right reasons. I went along with Lily's reasoning in order to vent some of my considerable anger. Still, I forgive them for their meddling. I understand the fear of alienation better than almost anyone else, after all. And while I know Remus's secret and don't think any more poorly of him for it, I also know that they don't know that I know. How confusing is that? Besides, Lily definitely doesn't know Remus's secret. She wouldn't hate Remus for what he becomes once a month, not at all, but Lily is the kind of person that would pity him. Pity isn't something anyone likes, especially not those people already so unsure of where they stand in the world, and even with their friends. So far, she treats Remus like a normal person, as do I, which is probably the best thing for Remus. After all, he is a normal person most of the time. If you consider a Marauder normal, that is.

Anyway, here I am doing something I hate, and on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, too. In a dress shop of all things, preparing for a _Ball_. Who would've ever though it? _Me_ going to a Ball and trying on dresses in a shop with a friend, like a normal person or something. Oh, it isn't as though I hate dresses and getting all prettied up, it's just that I hate the whole process of picking out a dress. There are always so many styles and colors and accessories and shoes to choose from, and they all have to actually match. If only I were a guy, they have it so much easier you know. All they have to do is put on one of those tuxes and they're set. Urgh, men! If only they had forgotten me when choosing the stupid 'couples.' I mean, they've always forgotten me in other stuff, stuff I didn't really want to miss out on, and now when I'm faced with something I'd rather avoid they finally remember me. Seems sort of fishy actually, but that's probably just my paranoia acting up again. Hello there, Paranoia! I've been missing you! Where were you during the whole walrus fiasco?

Oh, great. Lily's just shoved a bunch of fabric into my arms and ushered me towards the dressing room. It seems the torture has just progressed to the dress-up stage. She's taken this whole friends again thing just a little too far, if you ask me. Maybe we were better off as enemies; I never had to try on dresses when we were arch-nemeses.

Hmm…well, would you look at that! This red dress doesn't look half bad on me! I mean, it's a little short for my tastes, sure, but if you go for slut…and considering who my date is…

"Come on in there! Don't take all day! I want to see too," Lily called out excitedly. "Fashion show! Fashion show! Fashion show!" I never should've introduced her to the wonderful, sugar-filled shop that is Honeydukes. Lily seems to have gone a little overboard on the sugar quills… Obeying the slightly hyper red-head, I step out of the changing room. "Hmm…nice, but not…well, you, you know?" She told me, a slight frown marring her otherwise perfect face. Sometimes I'm rather jealous of her beauty. She really is rather gorgeous, with her long fiery red hair and perfect skin and dainty features, although she is rather tall. But then again, beauty gets people noticed, and sometimes by the wrong sort. I've had enough negative attention to last me a lifetime, so no beauty for me, as if that were possible. Anyway, during the course of our new friendship I had found out the hard way that Lily is always brutally honest, well, when she's not fulfilling a revenge plot towards yours truly, that is. And that's why I know she was telling the truth when she told me that this wasn't the dress for me. That doesn't mean I have to make it easy on her, however.

"But the dress is really pretty," I whine, hoping to get this trying on dresses bit done as soon as possible. A small part of me, though, is eyeing the pile of dresses hopefully. I have this thing about potential and hope. You see, while something is still untried it has almost limitless potential. At this very moment I am busy convincing myself that one of these dresses has the power to transform the normally dull and plain-looking me into the belle of the ball. Oh, who am I kidding? I'd settle for not looking extremely out of place next to my date. Hmm…my date…I must have been staring dreamily into the distance like a fool, because when Lily began her hyper tirade about why this wasn't the dress for me I jumped about a foot.

"You see," Lily finished, sounding slightly flustered in her efforts not to inadvertently insult me, much to my enjoyment because Lily is not often flustered, "this dress simply doesn't er…suit you. You need something more demure…more elegant and less…""Slut-like?" I asked innocently, already closing the door to the small room and grabbing the next dress I touched. Seeing that it was of the same design as the other one, although this time in black with sequins, I put it in the discard along with the red dress.

"Well, yeah. You're not exactly the type," Lily complimented. Or at least I took it as such. I wanted to try on the black low-cut dress just to peeve her, but I then just sighed. She was right, it just wasn't my type of dress. If I actually ended up wearing such a thing to the Ball I'd spend the entire night uncomfortable, either pulling my dress up or down to more modest lengths. So instead I grabbed a dress that would tend to cover a bit more of me and pulled it on.

"What do you think?" I stepped out and twirled around a couple times for Lily's benefit. But she was busy staring out the window towards Zonko's, where I knew a tousled hair, hazel eyed boy and his friends were currently goofing off. Her gaze had strayed there far too often in a single afternoon to write it off as coincidence. "Lily, Lily, earth to Lily," I snapped my fingers near her ear.

"Wha?" She whipped her head around so fast she probably gave herself whiplash. Oh look, now she's rubbing her neck, that looks painful. Oh well, now I can tease her. That's what friends are for, after all. At least that's what the Marauders tell me. Although, sometimes their ideas of friendship seem rather twisted…but fun.

"_Lily and James sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i," _I started to sing obnoxiously. She clapped a hand over my mouth and looked around the store swiftly with a gaze full of fear and paranoia. Oh hey, I know that look! I wonder if that's what I look like when I'm all suspicious? Minus the flaming red hair, of course. And my nostrils probably don't do that strange flaring thing…hopefully.

"Shut it!" She scolded me. As if she didn't know that it takes more than that to shut me up once I get started! Oh, one of Lily's patented evil glares…involuntary shudder…okay, fine I won't mention it again! I nodded for her benefit.

"So," I said casually once she had released my mouth, "you like James." Once again she cast a quick paranoid glance around the store as if looking for girls with notepads just waiting for the latest gossip. Which was probably smart after what happened with that Ravenclaw girl and Rita Skeeter last year. I wonder what ever happened to her?

"Of course not!" Lily declared stubbornly. Hmm…obviously I need to use more subtle tactics.

"So, you like Amos Diggory, then. You know, your date to this silly little Ball thing," I couldn't help but insert a small dig about the Ball she was practically dragging me to. Although, it wasn't looking so bad now that I'm paired up with Sirius…

"Er…he's nice enough, I guess," Lily tried.

"No," I informed her, "he's an arrogant prat. And rather fond of his own face, I might add."

"He is not," Lily defended her date half-heartedly.

"No, seriously, I once saw him snogging his reflection in a pocket mirror after he'd finished powdering his face, I bet if he'd had a bigger mirror he'd have been shagging it," I told her, successful for once at maintaining a strict poker face. This all ended, of course, once we looked at each other and simultaneously burst into fits of hysterical laughter. I blame the sugar. I might have also eaten a bit…er, well maybe a lot of candy. Gotta love Honeyduke's chocolate and that new Droobles product is to die for! Mmm…good!

Good golly gumdrops, was that yet another flash of green going by the front? Is it just me or has there been an abnormal amount of Slytherin sightings lately? Maybe they're just waiting for me to be alone and then…gulp. I guess it is a good thing that Sirius hasn't let me out of his sight lately. He seems to be worried, probably rightly so, that the Slytherins are just waiting for another chance to gang up on me. In fact, this is the first time he hasn't been hanging around me like a lost, but really, really cute, puppy. He took one look at this girly dress store and practically ran over to Zonko's, declaring the dress shop safe territory from Slytherins. Although, his terror might have been partially because Lily threatened him with a severe hexing if he didn't leave us alone for some girl time already. Besides, as she reminded him, a girl's dress is supposed to be a surprise for her date. You know, so she can bedazzle him with how well she cleaned up and all. Not that this will be the case with me. Especially if all the dresses are too 'slutty' for me, as Lily's been informing me.

I guess I forgot to mention that Sirius and I got 'coupled' up for the Halloween Ball. For once McGonagall didn't forget about me, which was surprising. I can only hope that Sirius doesn't mind that I have two left feet when it comes to dancing, and life in general. Oh, who am I kidding, of course he minds! I mean first he gets saddled with me as a date, when clearly he doesn't like me like that, and now he has to actually be seen dancing in public with me. He probably thinks its just a bad dream he's bound to wake up from any minute now. Undoubtedly that's why he's been smiling so much lately: he's looking forward to the end of his nightmare. Unfortunately he's not about to wake up and be going with someone pretty and…well, easy like Missy Cauldman. No, that's James. Which isn't exactly putting Lily in the best mood, let me tell you.

This time I pulled on a long chocolate-brown gown and stepped out of the changing room for Lily's inspection without even glancing in the mirror.

"Oooh," she said, sitting straighter in the chair, "much more 'you!' Now we're cookin'." She rubbed her hands together in excitement.

"I don't know," I finally looked at myself in the mirror, I guess I look okay, "isn't brown a little…dull?"

"No, no, no. It's definitely your color. The dress looks very nice on you, actually. I think that's the one. Besides, everyone else will be wearing bright colors,"

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" I muttered under my breath.

"So you'll stand out. Not that you won't already, being on Sirius's arm and all. I swear, you two are the only 'couple' who actually like each other! It's like a conspiracy, or something." I looked over the door while changing, Lily looked sullen. She was probably thinking about being stuck with Diggory all night, and trying to keep her date and James away from each other. Let's just say that Diggory and James aren't exactly on the best of terms. Boy is this Ball going to be rife with drama, I can already tell.

"Well, it's not like the teachers know that, they probably think Sirius and I know each other just about as much as Diggory and a little thing I like to call humility." We both giggled.

"You and Sirius are going to have so much fun," she sighed jealously, and I didn't have the heart to destroy the dreamy look on her face with the truth.

"Holy Guacamole! It's that much for this? That's highway robbery!" I called out indignantly, looking at the price tag on my dress. I went to put it back on the rack.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked sternly, snapping out of her reverie, "I spent too much time picking that out for you just to put it back." She crossed her arms and sent me another evil glare.

"Forget it, it's way too much. I'm sure I can find something on sale," I started to hang the dress up on the rack. It was too bad, really, it had been beginning to grow on me. Now Lily was really giving me the evil eye.

"Taylor-Whatever your Middle Name is-Brown, you are going to buy that dress and you are going to like it. You will wear it to the Ball and make Sirius go all speechless and gaping like boys tend to do. Besides, I know for a fact that your parents aren't bad off so you can afford it." The look she was shooting at me could make paint peel at 100 feet and send a dragon crying for his Mommy. I knew what was good for me: I bought the dress. Someday that girl would make a wonderful mother; her kid would never do anything wrong for fear of that look!

"Now," she stated more calmly once I had purchased my dress and she had purchased hers (an absolutely beautiful green dress a little more low-cut than mine), "do you want to go to The Three Broomsticks or try to drag the boys out of Zonko's?"

"I don't know," I said worriedly, glancing over at Zonko's. Sirius would worry if he couldn't find me. Which was sweet, really, but I wanted a little more time to hang out with Lily alone. Time without the distraction of finding a suitable gown. Perhaps we'd even talk about him and James without them around.

"Sirius will get over it," Lily told me as if she'd read my mind. That girl was very intuitive. Which is another reason she would make a great mother someday. Another Slytherin walked past, glancing at me more than I would've liked. But what could they do to me in the very crowded, very public place that was The Three Broomsticks? "He practically keeps you on a leash," Lily continued, "what harm could it possibly do to have a little alone time?" And so it was decided.

It was Hogsmeade weekend and Sirius was having a blast in Zonko's with his best mates. They were all joking around and investigating products and generally having a good, loud time. The shopkeeper had already threatened to kick them out twice. Ah, to be having fun and making trouble all at the same time.

Every once in awhile he would look out the front window across the street and into the dress shop. If it had been only a couple of months ago the reason would have been to catch a glimpse of a half naked girl as she changed, even as unlikely as that was to happen. But now he was only trying to catch a glimpse, any glimpse at all of the two Gryffindor girls who were inside. Since the incident with the Slytherins Sirius had been on the lookout. He took it as his responsibility to keep Gwnie safe and sound. It might have been just his imagination, but were there more Slytherins walking by wherever they happened to be or what? Especially since the confrontation… And now she was in the dress shop, out of his sight, picking out a dress to wear to the Ball with him. The thought of her preparing for a night with him, almost like a date, gave him a funny feeling inside. Which, strangely enough, made a small smile break out across his face.

"What's up with the goofy grin, mate?" James asked, looking at him strangely.

"Er…nothing, just looking at this nose-biting teacup, reckon we can slip it to ol' Snivellus?" Sirius covered up. James seemed quite taken with the idea of slipping _something_ to Snape, but wasn't sure that a nose-biting teacup was quite the thing. He seemed more inclined towards poison…after all, it was a well known fact that Snape often took sleeping potions at night (after he'd missed breakfast due some miscalculations for the umpteenth time) and it would be so very easy to slip something into it.

When the boys left Zonko's they sent Remus into the dress shop to retrieve the girls, because he looked the most trustworthy. Adults were more inclined to help a young boy who looked trustworthy, and who wasn't trying to look down a girl's top, especially those in charge of girl's shops. When Remus came out of the dress shop he only looked mildly concerned.

"The lady running the shop says that they left about half an hour ago," Remus told the other boys. Sirius looked ready to bolt off in every direction at once, but James stopped him.

"Calm down, Pads. They're grown girls, they can take care of themselves," James told him evenly, "they probably just went for a bite to eat. No need to worry yourself into a tizzy like a right prat."

And so they walked to The Three Broomsticks more or less calmly and joined the girls at the table. Sirius immediately sat next to Taylor and took a sip of her Butterbeer while he waited for his to come out. He glared over at the group of Slytherins at a nearby table, they quickly looked away.

The Ball was quickly approaching and more than one group of people had plans they hoped to accomplish at it.


	17. Halloween

In the week leading up to the Halloween Ball the castle was in complete and total uproar. Decorations began to appear like mad all over the place. At first it was only the random skeleton or two in the hallways. But soon there were cobwebs covering every surface and jack-o-lanterns leering evilly from behind the visor of every suit of armor or just floating along the corridors just above the students' heads. That particular week had been unusually drama-filled even for Hogwarts. It seemed like you couldn't walk two paces in either direction without hearing someone say:

"But [insert name of boyfriend/girlfriend], you know that I don't want to go with [insert name of 'date']!", and the answering "Yeah but you don't have to seem so happy about it!" But despite all the fights breaking out in corridors, and using the logic of time speeding up exponentially compared to how much one dreads said event, the night of the Ball was soon upon them.

As was to be expected, the girls' dorm was in complete and utter pandemonium. Even from the Common Room students could hear the screams of girls who just discovered their dresses ripped and stained by their 'date's' girlfriend. Others called out in pain from the rigorous beautifying they were going through in order to look their very best. What with all the cat fights breaking out and best friends attempting to give makeovers to their more shy counterparts, it wasn't the most pleasant place to be.

On the other hand, the boys' dorm was beginning to fill with clueless boys who didn't know which way their dress robes went on or how to tie their ties. And that's not even mentioning the occasional hexing for either bumping into someone while walking around on the stairs, for just looking at someone the wrong way, or for daring to be assigned to take another's girl to the Ball.

That said, both dormitories were tightly strung minefields, which was why Lily and Taylor had taken over the prefect's bathroom for their Ball preparations. It had seemed like the perfect solution until ten other girls with the same idea had burst in. Now they were all vying for positions at the mirrors, bumping and pushing and sending dirty looks towards anyone who dared to defy them their preparation for the much anticipated chance to dress their best.

Personally Taylor thought Moaning Myrtle's bathroom was looking more and more appealing. And if Myrtle somehow sabotaged her and she never made it to the Ball, so much the better. She was feeling somewhat sick about the whole thing. There were so many chances to screw up, so many obligations she had to fulfill, it was intimidating. And she was sure that Sirius didn't actually want to go with her. It occurred to her that faking sick might get her out of the whole affair, but then she looked at Lily's flushed and excited face and knew that Lily would drag her along even if she was puking up a storm and had a fever.

In the week leading up to the Ball McGonagall had informed the Gryffindors several times that they were to be on their best behavior or she would be sure to leave them alone in the dungeons with a whip-brandishing Filch. In the same breath she had told them that this looked to be very entertaining and she was actually beginning to look forward to it. Taylor couldn't help but notice that her eyes flickered between her and Sirius quite often with a glint in them that made her feel a little uncomfortable. Then their aging head of house had told them the obligations they had to fulfill as a 'couple' and Taylor's nerves had quadrupled.

"You're to be announced at the top of the marble staircase, and you boys' are to be gentlemanly and have your 'date' on your arm if you know what's best for you. After that you'll be seated together in the Great Hall for the feast. Then you're to dance the first dance together," at this point she rolled her eyes, not looking forward to the frivolity and especially not the band Dumbledore had so unwisely hired, "and at least every other song after that."

Most people thought the affair rather trumped up and pretentious, and the long list of requirements only confirmed this suspicion. They already couldn't wait for the few songs they didn't have to dance with their 'date.' Most people were upset they couldn't ask the person they preferred to go with them. Others were happy that they even had a date. The whole affair reeked of over planning and secret agendas. But that could just have been Taylor's overactive Paranoia talking.

Taylor was in the small minority that didn't want to go at all. In fact, she might have been the only one who didn't want to go at all. Even the jealous boyfriends/girlfriends wanted to go, if only to keep an eye on their counterparts. The girls looked forward to dressing up for once and 'getting out of the horrendous school uniforms, honestly don't the teachers notice how anti-individualistic they were?' They didn't seem to realize that was rather the point.

She kept thinking about all the ways she could mess up at an event like this, and just knew that she wouldn't make it through all the pomp and circumstance without at least one horribly public faux pas. Even worse, she'd have to watch Sirius drool over the other, hotter/sluttier girls all night. She hoped that she was completely wrong about the whole affair, and that it would actually be interesting. She hoped it would prove Lily's whispered reassurances that Sirius actually did like her to be true. But she wasn't going to count on it.

"Come on Brown," Lily called out, frazzled by all the work she'd done on her both of their hair and makeup, "we have to meet the boys over by the Portrait Hole."

"I've decided not to go," she responded shortly.

"You have to go," Lily repeated for the umpteenth time that evening, "it's _mandatory_. Besides, you don't want Sirius to go alone, do you?"

"He won't care, he doesn't want to go with me anyway," Taylor sighed and stepped out of the prefect's bathroom anyway.

"Has he said that?" Lily asked doubtfully as they began walking towards Gryffindor Tower.

"Well, no, but I'm sure he'd rather be going with someone more…just more, okay?" She added, seeing Lily's smug look.

"But he didn't say that, did he? I'll bet you a hundred galleons that he wants to go with you," Lily smirked.

"But Sirius is…" Taylor started hesitantly.

"Is what? Dashing, handsome, brilliant, or all of the above?" A smug male voice said from behind them, a hand suddenly resting on Taylor's shoulder.

"More like ugly, dull, and conceited," Taylor told him, making a show of turning around and rolling her eyes at him, trying to stifle the butterflies in her stomach.

"That pains me, really it does," Sirius claimed dramatically, clutching a hand to his heart and looking towards the ceiling. Then he looked down at her. For a prolonged moment it felt like his heart had stopped. For once in his life he was gaping at a girl and couldn't think of a thing to say. Then he smiled, "You clean up nice, love." She snorted in disbelief.

"At the risk of making you even more bigheaded than you are already, you cleaned up nice too," she grinned up at him. Way up at him. A tall, long-legged girl she was not. Even though she was wearing high heels he was still a lot taller than her.

"May I escort you to the Ball, my lady?" Sirius asked in an exaggerated gentlemanly voice, offering her his arm.

"I will allow it, my good sir," she rested her small hand lightly on the crook of his arm, they both felt a jolt of pleasant electricity run from the pit of their stomachs to their hearts.

Lily smiled as she watched them stumble nervously around with each other. Each obviously liked, maybe even the beginnings of loved, the other. But both were obviously oblivious of the other's feeling and afraid of rejection. She would just have to help them along, she decided firmly. Frowning, she turned to the other Marauders. James was standing by Missy, a wary expression on his face as though he were dealing with a rabid raccoon. Peter looked slightly more comfortable chatting with his 'date' Jeannette than Lily was happy about. It bothered her that the normally sweet-seeming Peter could get along so well with Jeannette, who was a soul-sucking Vulture. Remus was alone, his 'date' was, like hers, from a different house. The two exchanged a knowing look, glancing over at the happy couple standing several feet further down the hallway to make their point. Lily decided to let him in on her scheming at a later time. He could very well prove to be useful.

"Lily," James called out, looking relived, "thank God you're here. Er…I mean, now we can leave. Where are you two meeting your dates?" He gestured towards Lily and Remus as they started forward. Peter and Jeannette lagged behind and eventually disappeared from sight to do…well no one had asked too many questions or really wanted to know. James sent one last disapproving look his way.

"Top of the marble staircase," Remus responded dully. He didn't know his date very well. But the few times they had met she didn't come out looking very appealing to him in any way. The girl, Mabel, was a rather bold Ravenclaw girl who had immediately taken control of their few conversations. Mabel seemed under the misapprehension that because Remus was a Gryffindor he was also dumb as a rock and took every opportunity to patronize him. As Remus was of above average intelligence he didn't take kindly to this and simply stopped responding to anything she said. Lily thought, and rightly so, that this probably added to Mabel's misconception.

Meanwhile, Sirius and Taylor were leisurely walking towards the staircase, now quite a bit ahead of the group. Sirius loved the feeling of her hand nestled on his arm and her sweet little self walking along beside him. He was so much taller than her that he could easily see the top of her head, even though she was wearing high heels. When he'd seen her he'd been absolutely thunderstruck. She was the most beautiful girl he'd ever laid eyes on. With her curly, messy brown hair obviously done up, but slightly falling apart, and her innocent eyes looking up at him with slight apprehension and hopeful happiness. She was wearing more makeup than he was used to seeing on her, which only accentuated her subtle beauty. All of this made him want to lock her up somewhere far away from the other boys who were sure to ogle her. The thought made his free fist clench involuntarily. He didn't even realize that she was more beautiful and attractive to him than to other boys, who would much prefer the more flashy attractiveness of girls like Missy Cauldman.

"Sirius," came Taylor's careful voice, pulling him to a stop and clearing the jealous fog that had been enveloping his thoughts, "it's okay if you want to dance with other girls tonight," Sirius's heart clenched painfully. To him it sounded like she didn't like him like he liked her. And he was becoming more and more aware of his infatuation with the small brunette. Drat those boys who would undoubtedly ask her to dance, the ones she'd obviously rather be going with, he cursed. But Taylor continued on, oblivious to his internal struggle, "I'll just hang out with Lily while you do. I mean, I know you won't want to hang out with me all night," her voice broke, "but I understand, you can dance with the other girls." Sirius watched her mask-like face closely, seeing the sadness concealed in her eyes. He leaned down, looking steadily into her eyes as they revealed the confusion and hope. She seemed to be stunned into silence for once. His arms wrapped around her shoulders as he pulled her closer and leaned in to…

"There you are, Padfoot," James hearty voice called from down the hallway, once again oblivious to what he'd just interrupted. Lily could be seen smacking her hand to her forehead before sending a knowing glance Taylor's way. On the other hand, an annoyed Sirius sent a death glare towards his confused best mate.

"What?" James scrunched his brow. Even Missy rolled her eyes. It really was rather obvious to everyone who wasn't James.

"Maybe someday I'll explain it to you, Hon," Lily patted him on the arm. James went beat-red and was so distracted he forgot what was going on in the first place. Missy rolled her eyes again, annoyed she'd have to spend so much time in the company of a boy who was obviously in love with her ex-friend and a boy who had recently rejected her. Hopefully she could sneak away to spend a little time with Andrew Adaeux, he could be a nice…distraction.

All too soon for James the group had arrived at the top of the stairs and Lily had gone to stand with that Diggory prat and his friends. 'Someday that boy's going to get what's coming to him, or my name isn't James Potter!' James growled menacingly, but only inside his head. Unbeknownst to him, a small bit of his feeling appeared on his face in a cruel snarl. Diggory, seeing this, took a small step away from Lily. They all fell into line on top of the Marble Staircase.

"I'm going to trip, I just know it!' Taylor whispered loudly to Sirius as the line of 'couples' in front of them waiting to be announced grew shorter and shorter.

"You're with me," Sirius grinned smugly, "you'll be fine."

"Somehow that doesn't reassure me," Taylor teased.

"That hurts, Brown," Sirius pretended to look depressed but only succeeded in looking highly amused. All too soon for Taylor they were being announced to the crowd of students at the bottom of the stairs.

"Presenting Mr. Black and Miss Brown," Professor Sprout called out loudly, crossing them off the list she had on her clipboard. Sprout was actually clean for once, sans all the usual patches and dirt, and looked younger than she had for years

"Frankfurters," Taylor cursed under her breath, "don't let me trip, okay Sirius?"

"Gwnie," Sirius told her seriously as they began to descend, "I'll never let you down. Especially," he added to lighten the mood once they had reached the bottom, "in front of such a large viewing audience." The crowd of chatting, and in some cases threatening, students at the bottom of the stairs quickly enveloped them as they heard, "Presenting Mr. Potter and Miss Cauldman."

Soon, but not to the hungry students waiting impatiently, the doors to the Great Hall opened and the students rushed to form a line as they had been instructed earlier. Still, it was a slow process. Flitwick had to cross them off yet another list and Sinistra or Vector seated them according to arrangement.

The hall was more elegant and fancy than anyone had ever seen it. The Halloween décor that had been so abundant in the hallways seemed to have lost favor in the scheme of this room. It was mostly decorated with long draped orange and black silk. Although, it looked as though someone couldn't resist adding a few jack-o-lanterns, cobwebs, and skeletons at random. And, of course, there were hundreds of floating candles. Which was a fire hazard, of course, but no one seemed to notice or care.

The usual house tables had been replaced in favor of a couple hundred more intimate tables that would seat about eight people apiece. Sirius and Taylor were placed at a table with a couple of Ravenclaws who glared at Taylor evilly, a pair of Hufflepuffs who greeted Sirius but ignored Taylor completely, and the seventh year Gryffindor Andrew Adaeux who had been paired with a fifth year Slytherin girl. Andrew was looking at Taylor with speculative lust in his eyes, having apparently already decided his 'date' wouldn't put out. Said 'date' was staring hard at Taylor as if willing herself to recall why she should know her. Not surprisingly, Taylor didn't feel the love at the table.

"So," Sirius said to the table at large, they ignored him. The Ravenclaws continued to glare at Taylor, the Hufflepuffs continued to look everywhere but her, and the last couple were staring at her lustfully and with dawning hate, respectfully. When Sirius noticed all this he looked a little taken aback. "Er Gwn," Sirius leaned in close and asked her under his breath so the others couldn't hear, "why do the Ravenclaws look like they'd gladly put your head on a spike?" She just shook her head and mouthed 'Later' at him.

Everyone ordered something different off a menu by telling their waiter, a house elf with a small notepad and apron, what they wanted. Then the house elf would apparate back into the kitchens and arrive seconds later with the meal.

"Wouldn't be easier if we could order directly to the kitchens from our plates?" Sirius commented to Taylor after seeing the harried house elves popping in and out all over the place looking slightly frustrated and almost colliding with each other and the students being seated.

"Quite right," came Dumbledore's amused voice from directly behind them. He continued on past them muttering something along the lines of, "maybe at the next Ball…perhaps of the Yule nature…"

Despite that one moment of pleasant interchange, it wasn't the most comfortable supper they had ever experienced at Hogwarts. For one thing, the glares directed at Taylor did not abate as everyone ate. Even worse was the lustful gaze of Adaeux. He seemed to be undressing her as he slowly ate, never looking away. As the plates slowly emptied Taylor inched closer and closer to Sirius for protection and comfort. By the end of the meal she was pressed up against his side, making eating rather difficult for the both of them, not that either minded. The look Adaeux was giving Taylor, like he couldn't wait to corner her alone, was making her feel squirmy and self-conscious. Sirius, on the other hand, was the only thing keeping her from running away and hiding in the bathroom or running up to the dorms and pulling the curtains around her four-poster. Sirius put a protective arm around her waist, but was too busy glaring at Andrew as though he wished for nothing else but his speedy death to concentrate on much else. Not that Taylor would've felt very comfortable talking with him with the hateful glares of so many directed her way.

All in all, she was relived when Dumbledore stood and announced the end of the meal and the beginning of the dancing. Almost immediately everyone else mimicked him in standing and the tables all slid to the sides of the room with their chairs trailing after them and people jumping quickly out of the way. Not everyone was able to hop, dodge, or twirl away quickly enough, however, and a few people were knocked over onto the floor or drug along behind the offending piece of furniture. Taylor was busy watching an amusing scene involving Jeannette doing a serious of pirouettes to avoid a fleet of chairs only to have the knees knocked out from under her by one at the last minute. She was so busy laughing at the look on Jeannette's face that she didn't notice the table heading straight for her. Sirius grabbed her around the waist and swung her out of the way.

Whilst saving her, Sirius had pressed her up against him, his arms wrapped firmly around her waist. She looked up at him and he down at her. They simply stared into the depths of each others eyes, losing track of time until someone nearby let out a small, pointed cough. The two sprang apart quickly and directed their attention back to Dumbledore, who was still standing in the middle of the room. He was watching them now with an amused twinkle in his eye. Meanwhile McGonagall was standing off to one side with her mouth hanging slightly open. Taylor's cheeks flushed deep red, but a completely unabashed Sirius met everyone's curious gaze.

"Well everyone," Dumbledore announced loudly, still looking at the couple for whom all this was done, "please welcome the band for this affair, The Dancing Pumpkins!" With that simple introduction the band began to unenthusiastically play a slow waltz, all the while looking disgusted in their tights, face paint, and spiked hairdos.

As the night wore on, and the band played crazy songs that were more their style, Taylor and Sirius were one of the few 'couples' who didn't break up every other song to dance with others. Sure, most of the time they also danced with their entire group of friends, but they remained near each other all night. Despite having to stop James from wringing Diggory's neck every five minutes, they were both having a wonderful time; it was almost like a real date.

"Stay here," Sirius told Taylor, leading her over to one of the mostly discarded tables. Only a couple of them were occupied. A few people were pouting there while pointedly glaring at someone on the dance floor or crying pathetically into their drinks. "I'm going to go get us some punch," Sirius told her. Taylor nodded happily and he set off, weaving his way through the dancing crowd and taking a wide berth around Dumbledore in his eccentric hat who had somehow managed to talk McGonagall into dancing with him.

"Aren't you glad you agreed now, Minerva!" He could be heard yelling above the music. The student body couldn't make out McGonagall's answer nor tell whether her expression was one of concentration or annoyance.

Sirius hadn't been gone long when Taylor began to feel eyes on her, and they weren't making her feel very comfortable. Looking around anxiously she saw Adaeux staring at her from the middle of the dance floor with the same predatory expression he'd worn all night. Quickly Andrew began to weave his way through the crowd. Glancing around swiftly, she saw that Sirius was being waylaid by an irate fan girl and couldn't protect her.

"My my," Andrew said pompously from right behind her, "you clean up nice, don't you? How'd you like to come with me, my pretty, and I'll give you a night to remember." Taylor's face was a cross between a scared bunny and a deer caught in the headlights. Adaeux placed a heavy arm over her shoulders, "come now, no need to look so scared, my dear. I'm just here to give you a good time. Besides, as I've heard it, you've seen it all before anyway. Why else would the Marauders keep someone like you around?" He whispered in her ear, she shuddered with revulsion which he misinterpreted as interest, "that's better, now, if you'll just come with me…" he grabbed her arm and pulled her up out of the chair.

"No," she said firmly, her eyes glinting with disgust and hatred.

"What was that, my dear," Andrew asked distractedly still trying to lead her towards somewhere more private.

"I'm not going with you, you slime, not now and not ever!" She jerked out of his painfully tight grasp and backed away.

"Playing hard to get, are you? Well, we'll just see about that," he smirked unpleasantly.

"Oh, hi Sirius! My don't you look angry!" She said, looking over Andrew's shoulder. He turned around quickly, an excuse on his lips and fully prepared to grovel at Sirius's feet, but was met only with thin air.

"Why that little minx," he muttered angrily under his breath when he realized the trick. Then he turned around again only to see no sign of his prey. He surveyed the area but didn't see her, only catching a glimpse of something brown on the other side of the room, "ah, there you are! You can't hide from me, my little minx!" He moved quickly across the dance floor once more.

Meanwhile, Sirius had thrown off his fan girl and had arrived at the empty table with two cups of punch.

"Er…Taylor?" He asked the general area in confusion. He didn't think she was the kind of girl who would abandon her date, even if he was just her 'date.' And to think, he'd thought they were having so much fun together, too. Just when he was about to sink into a small bout of self pity, something pulled on his pant leg. He looked down swiftly only to see a small pale hand disappear back under the folds of tablecloth. Kneeling down he lifted up the creamy linen only to have the same hand grab hold of his dress robes and pull him fully under the table. In the semi-darkness he could make out the form of a girl. "Er…Taylor?"

"Yes, yes, now be quiet," she peered under the table cloth to see if anyone was near.

"Not to be rude and interrupt…well, whatever it is you're doing, but why are we under the table?" Sirius raised his eyebrows, nonplussed.

"Well, Adaeux sort of cornered me, but I managed to hide under here," she told him matter-of-factly.

"Andrew? What did he do?" Sirius asked angrily, his fists clenching.

"He was coming on to me awfully strong and wouldn't take 'no' for an answer!" Taylor shuddered again in revulsion and repressed fear. "Plus," she added in a small voice, "he insinuated that I'm just a slut, anyway, and that's why you guys keep me around."

"That's crazy talk, don't worry, the Marauders will show him what for!" Sirius said diabolically.

"Gotta love your evil side," she smiled at him and crawled closer to him under the table. She sat by his side, for once showing the brave side to her nature as she reached up and…

A table nearby exploded, shards of wood and cloth flying everywhere. Girls shrieked, running to their actual boyfriends. Someone pointed towards the Entrance Hall and screamed: "Who's there?" Of course, being under the table, Sirius and Taylor did not see the shadowy masked figures moving about in the large arched doorway, their wands trained on Dumbledore and the other professors and their eyes searching the partying students thoroughly. Sirius made a move to lift the tablecloth to peer around to see what the heck was going on, but Taylor stopped him with a look that said just how stupid she found his idea.

"SEND OUT THE BLOOD TRAITOR AND THE HALF-BLOOD ABOMINATION!" A frustrated and angry voice reverberated through the Great Hall when they could not find said students for themselves. Gasps echoed from all corners of the room. Someone could be heard weeping. Sirius and Taylor froze. "JUST GIVE THEM TO US AND NO ONE WILL BE HURT!" The voice brazenly lied as a pumpkin exploded, showering shrieking girls with pumpkin guts.

"Deatheaters," Sirius mouthed, and Taylor nodded in agreement.

"I think they're standing in the Entrance Hall," Taylor whispered. Sirius pulled her up on his lap and clutched her to his chest as if for protection and comfort.

"I will never allow that to happen," Dumbledore called sternly from the direction of the dance floor, brandishing his wand threateningly, seemingly oblivious to the half dozen wands pointing at him. "You would do well to leave my school and never darken it's doorstep again," he warned in a voice not as loud as the menacing one but carrying and more angry and serious than any there had ever heard it.

"YOU WILL SEND THEM OUT TO US," said the voice, "AND YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHICH TWO I MEAN, OLD MAN. YOU WILL DO THIS OR YOUR OTHER STUDENTS WILL DIE."

"Leave now," Dumbledore ordered again, his voice colder now than it had been even before, "or you will be the ones to die."

"SEND THEM OUT," called the voice, "WE ONLY WANT THE BLOOD TRAITOR AND THE HALF BLOOD ABOMINATION, NOT EXACTLY THE MOST WORTHY OF YOUR STUDENTS," the cruel voice cackled, finding his scant wit most amusing.

"All my students are worthy," Dumbledore protested coldly, "you have been warned for the last time: leave now."

"AND YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, OLD MAN, NEXT TIME WE WON'T BE AS," a sickly yellow light from Dumbledore's upraised arm flashed through the Great Hall, cutting him off. Several cries of pain were heard, footsteps issued away quickly, and the voice spoke no more.

"I think that signals the early end of our Ball," Dumbledore said sadly to his slightly hysterical students. "I think you'll find your dormitories will be safe enough as the staff will be guarding the corridors. Rest assured that this won't happen again. Off you go now. Be sure to follow the prefects, and don't wander off whatever you do."

"Oh my gosh," Taylor said, not even actually swearing during the time of great stress. Sirius nodded sadly.

"They're after me," they both said simultaneously. Sirius looked down at her and she looked up at him, their brows furrowed in very much the same way. "No, they're after me," they both insisted again.

"Sadly you are both correct," Dumbledore said morosely from his kneeling position, holding up the tablecloth with one hand and studying them closely. Both teenagers jumped and hit their heads on the table.

"Er…sir, this isn't what it looks like," Sirius told him, knowing his story wasn't at all validated by the fact that he had been caught in similar positions with several different young ladies over the years. Despite his otherwise serious face, Dumbledore let out an amused chuckle.

"It really isn't," Taylor insisted. Dumbledore flashed them a knowing look.

"Either way, I need the two of you to follow me," he sighed, standing aside so they could crawl out from under the table, much to the ill-concealed amusement of the teachers watching them. Taylor's entire face turned a dark red as Sirius helped her up. Neither would look at the other, not with this many teachers around to make them uncomfortable at any display of affection. As it was, McGonagall couldn't quite wipe the ecstatic grin off her face.

"Come with me, you two," Dumbledore told them, leading them towards his office.

"But we really didn't do anything, Professor! Honest!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Although your reputation proceeds you, Mr. Black," Dumbledore half smiled, "unfortunately I believe you."

"Why is that unfortunate? Shouldn't you be discouraging students from sneaking off under tables together?" Taylor found her voice, incredulous as it was. Dumbledore sighed heavily as if the weight of the world were resting on his shoulders and he'd soon have to unwillingly deposit the load on someone in his care.

"I think there's something you both need to hear…"

Author's Note: Anyway, I gave you a Halloween Ball _and_ a Deatheater attack all in one. Now I leave you with a minor cliffy. Will Dumbledore reveal all? Will he lie? What's going to happen?

So, I want to know from those who'd know best (my readers) what should I do about Remus? Get him together with a reformed Mabel or find him someone else to love?

I'd also love it if you told me what you think so far, what you want to happen next, and how much you hate me for being too mean to the main characters (Ok, maybe I wouldn't _love_ that last bit, but I'd still listen to any valid complaints you have). Review, I know you want to! :D


	18. Worries

**Author's Note: Sorry about the long wait, but I'm having a little trouble with inspiration...and finding time to write.**

In neither the tallest nor the shortest tower at Hogwarts, two students were completely stunned. They were perched on two spindly chairs, sitting stalk still in front of the most powerful man either had ever known. A lemon drop lay, sour, on the girl's tongue. The very same man who had given out said muggle candy was, not surprisingly, the cause of said astonishment and general dismay. The old man with his outrageously long white beard had just finished telling them that they could accomplish together what he, with all his brilliance and extraordinary power, could not. Not only that, but the very same thing that no one yet discovered could accomplish. Well, until now, anyways.

The two students were still dressed up in all their finery. The girl was slightly pretty, but certainly not extraordinary in appearance, and was wearing a long brown ball gown, and the admittedly handsome, oogle worthy boy was dressed up in expensive fancy dress robes. But for the moment all that was completely forgotten. Sometime during the conversation each had grabbed onto the other's hand for comfort. Outwardly their expressions were merely of shock, but on the inside both were screaming out in the most extreme fright.

"So you see," Dumbledore finished his long spiel with a sad smile that also somehow displayed his helplessness, "either you two defeat Voldemort somehow or another prophesy will be born. But this alternative destiny will leave you and your friends 'dead, outcast, betrayed, and beaten,' and Voldemort will still rise again 'more evil by far,'" Dumbledore sighed and studied his students morosely, "but, as with anything, you do have a choice. I suppose the two of you will need some time to think everything over. So back to your dorms with the both of you. Chop, chop."

It probably showed the severity of their shock that both left without another word. At another time they would've had question upon question, but, for now, the astonishment covered up everything else. The two teenagers simply got up and walked out, still holding hands tightly. This was a fact that Dumbledore was happy to note, despite the circumstances. For the first time since lifting up the tablecloth to discover two of his young charges, a true smile lifted the corners of his mouth to match the twinkle in his eyes.

Walking quickly in spite of their numbness the two students quickly reached the Room of Requirement. Taylor was already walking past it when Sirius stopped.

"I think we should talk…alone," Sirius told her ominously and began to pace in front of he blank stretch of wall.

"Er…in the middle of the corridor?" Taylor asked tentatively, suspecting the worse.

Perhaps Sirius would 'break up' with her despite the fact that they weren't even actually together. She was sure that, at the very least, he would kick her out of the Gryffindor boys' dorm. Not an encouraging sign, he also appeared to have completely lost his marbles. Or, as Taylor liked to say, 'he chased his marbles over the deep end.' If he'd actually ever possessed any marbles, she wasn't sure. _She_ certainly didn't, especially after tonight. _Tonight._ A night full of such hope and fear and horrible revelations.

Marbles or not, she wasn't going to make this easy on him. She had given up on too much in her life to simply let him waltz out on her. Besides, she suspected that he was just freaked out because of that stupid prophesy thing, not because he'd just discovered his deep and abiding hatred of her. Which made all the difference in the world. Yes, she would fight to keep Sirius to herself, just as her friend if it came to that. But hopefully they could work out something more…satisfactory.

"No," Sirius corrected her as the door popped quietly into existence, "in here."

He grabbed her hand once more and dragged her inside. The Room had seen their need. It was currently decorated in a comforting red and gold. Truth be told, it looked a lot like a smaller version of the Gryffindor Common Room. He tried to lead her over to a well-worn couch, but she pulled out of his grasp. Sirius felt a pain in the region of his heart at the loss of contact. Realizing this was not a good sign seeing as what he was about to do, he stiffened his resolve. He would live up to his noble Gryffindor heritage, even if he had not been born into it. And he certainly wouldn't be the one responsible for bringing her harm, like some sort of…_Slytherin._

"Wait," Taylor said when he opened his mouth to begin the speech he had half perfected during the short route from the Gargoyle guarding Dumbledore's office to Barnabas the Barmy, "I want to go change. Is that possible in this strange, need-meeting room?" Although she knew something was coming that she wouldn't like and would have to struggle her hardest to prevent, there was true curiosity in her voice.

"Yeah," conversely, Sirius's voice was hard, "just imagine a bathroom and a set of…pajamas or something. Whatever you'd be most comfortable in, I guess," he added in a stiff voice. Suddenly a door appeared to Taylor's left where no door had been before. She looked at it speculatively.

"Thanks," she smiled at him, almost melting his resolve once more. "A girl could get used to this," she murmured to herself, opening the door.

Sirius sank on to the couch and ran a hand through his hair in a manner very reminiscent of James. A comparison he wouldn't have liked, as he preferred his own, considerably less wind blown, hairstyle.

A raging debate was boring holes in his head. He knew that he should just cut this girl out of his life as soon as possible. It wasn't just that Sirius hated having anyone or anything controlling his life. He didn't like having his life laid out before him, already planned by another person…or, in this case prophesy. And this prophesy was removing all choice from his life (no matter what Dumbledore said about "your life is not preordained, your choices will determine what happens, fate is nothing but a little prod in the right direction"). And that very lack of choice was the very reason he left his family, after all. Well, other than them being pureblood sadists, that is.

No, the real reason he had to never talk to her ever again, after this air clearing Room of Requirement conversation, was because this whole prophesy thing made everything ten times more dangerous for them. When they were simply a blood traitor and a half blood they were on Voldemort's hit list, albeit very low on his list. But if they suddenly became the blood traitor and half blood that held the very secret to his eventual downfall simply by being together, the two of them became one of Voldemort's priorities. And nobody, not even his most loyal Deatheater, would ever want to be that kind of priority to him. The two lovesick teens would be tracked down and killed, mercilessly. The Ball was certainly enough evidence of that. The very fact that Deatheaters were able to get into the school, and their only reason seemed to be instilling fear and attempting their capture, was not a very uplifting or encouraging sign.

Still, Sirius didn't want to cut her out of his life again. If anything he wanted to pull her to him and never let her go. However, if letting her go was what was best for her…if it saved her from pain…and misery…and possibly death…well, what else could a Gryffindor do?

Meanwhile, Taylor was making up her own mind, and her thoughts were leading her along entirely different avenues. If these two were enterprising enough to sell tickets to the upcoming "discussion," and had though of it, well, the seats would have been sold out. The two of them were stubborn enough, once got to arguing and defending their positions, to make the show interesting…with the possibility of bloodshed.

Taylor walked out of the bathroom, slightly self-conscious. When she had first walked in she had asked the room for a pair of pajamas that most suited her, and had felt slightly silly for talking to a room. Embarrassingly, these clothes had appeared. For the rest of the time that she had been holed up in there she had been asking for a different pair, thinking these probably wouldn't help her situation out in the other room. But nothing happened. Sighing and submitting by pulling them on, she decided to stall further by washing her face and pulling her hair down. Great, she now looked like some sort of wild child who had been raised by a kindly pack of wolves. Ones that had provided her with love, compassion, raw meat, and face wash.

Sirius looked up at her from the couch and his mind suddenly went completely blank. Standing in front of him was the most beautiful girl he thought he'd ever seen. Of course, it didn't help his sudden wave of overpowering possessiveness that she was wearing his old beaters jersey.

He remembered that he'd once hid out in this strange and wonderful room and had asked desperately for a change of clothes. Filch was angrily roaming around the corridors outside looking for the poor person who'd tracked mud onto his floor from Quidditch practice. Normally he wouldn't have minded Filch's wrath, but he'd already had a month's worth of detention.

But now his jersey looked clean, and much better on her than it had on him, even if it did practically reach to her knees. Under the jersey was a ratty pair of loose-fitting sweatpants. But what made his heart positively race was the sleepy look she gave him, peering out from her crazy all over the place hair. He sighed and knew that he could never carry through with his plan, all the fight was gone from him with that single, though long held, glance. But he would still try, even if it broke him. She plopped down heavily on the couch and yawned.

"This whole thing is pretty stupid, huh," she said sleepily, "I mean, of course we make our own fates, that stupid prophesy doesn't change that. If we listen to it we can head out on our own to defeat Him, kinda dangerous if you ask me. But at least we'd be choosing our own fighting grounds. We'd be the one's with the advantage, and the preparation. On the other hand, if we don't pay attention to it at all, life looks pretty dang bad for everyone," she yawned again, making the whole situation all the more surreal. "So we can either ignore everything and go about our lives or we can try to defeat the Evil Dude. Either way we have Deatheaters after us."

"You forgot the option where we go back to ignoring each other so they don't actually come after us left right and center," Sirius interjected seriously, grabbing her hand to offset the upsetting remark.

"That won't work," she told him steadfastly.

"Wha…why not?" Taken aback by her assured dismissal, his eyebrows scrunched together in the cutest way.

"Well, first off they already know we're together, if the way they gate-crashed the Ball is any indication. Secondly, they'd probably kill us anyway, just to rid themselves of the problem and to make sure the prophesy doesn't come true. We're not exactly their favorite people to begin with, after all. Thirdly, if we do nothing, and if you put any stock in prophesies, terrible things will happen and for the 'more deadly future exchange.' I, for one, am not going to coward out on my friends just because I couldn't shoulder what would have been my responsibility anyways." For the first time Sirius truly glared at her.

"I wouldn't…" Sirius snarled.

Taylor looked at him apologetically, "I know you wouldn't. I was talking about myself. I…I'm afraid. I'd rather not have to fight down the forces of darkness, you know. Not alone. Which brings us to…," she had figured this all out in the bathroom while she was stalling for time, including her feelings, "I won't let you drop me like a hot potato again."

"I wouldn't have," Sirius watched the floor with more interest than it probably deserved.

"Sure you would've," Taylor informed him casually.

"I already changed my mind," he insisted, meeting her eyes.

"You did?" she looked surprised. He nodded, looking depressed. She smiled happily and scooted closer to him on the couch. They looked at each other, inching closer and closer. Abruptly, she yawned.

"Shall we head back to the dorm, then?" he suggested.

"Yeah, they're probably worried sick about us!" She looked sick at the possibility.

Well, that wasn't exactly what was happening…

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Lily yelled at James about a foot from his ear. Instead of rupturing his ear drum, he merely looked confused. They were standing in the Common Room after the Ball had been so rudely interrupted by Evil Gate Crashers.

"What?" James yelled back over the deafening music that was currently blaring from someone's wand. Probably Monique. That Vulture had a wicked memory for all sorts of music, wizard or muggle.

"The party, James," Lily screamed directly into his ear, "is it such a good idea?"

"No need to yell, Lils," James boomed loudly and hypocritically back at her, "it's not that loud!" Lily did not look convinced.

Actually it was that loud. Perhaps the many years of loud Quidditch matches and having the Captain (before he'd been bestowed that title himself) blowing the whistle in his ears had caused him to become deaf. More believable was that he was trying to convince Lily that the party was not out of control. She was not convinced.

Anyone who'd had one look at the party would have agreed with her. After all, liberal amounts of firewhiskey had been poured into the fruit punch, causing it to fade from blood red to slightly pink. Probably as a direct result no one, including Lily, was very sober. Lily's own delightfully liberated buzz was probably the reason that she hadn't already put the refilling punch bowl out of operation and shipped everyone back to their own beds. People from all houses, having ignored the orders of the headmaster to seek comfort in the blurring qualities of alcohol, were milling about in the Gryffindor Common Room.

Someone had decided that a giant game of spin-the-bottle was appropriately light hearted. Another corner had been designated "couples corner" by the looks of things. But no one wanted to look all that closely. On an entirely different note, Jeannette and Peter, who had been disgustingly handsy throughout the night, were no where to be seen. No one really wanted to think too closely about that either. Not that anyone had noticed, really. The party was swiftly reaching roof-raising status. Even James and Lily could do nothing but join in on the fun.

Which was the state of things in Gryffindor Common Room when the slightly depressed Sirius and Taylor stumbled through the portrait hole…


End file.
